Duir

This is fabulous…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zd_FiwA8w8

I haven’t watched the January-February-March Portals yet, but they’re probably every bit as spectacular!

Status 6

A reminder that a return to Corporate Fascism isn’t much fun…

http://billmoyers.com/2014/04/23/us-workers-were-once-massacred-fighting-for-the-protections-being-rolled-back-today/

And a couple of proposals for reversing course…

http://nader.org/2014/03/11/unstoppable-emerging-left-right-alliance-dismantle-corporate-state/

http://billmoyers.com/2014/04/25/lawrence-lessig-has-a-moonshot-plan-to-halt-our-slide-toward-plutocracy/

And a comment…

“Many people believe that enclosures are a relic of the past – something that happened in medieval times, but not now.  Not so.  Vast portions of Africa, Asia and Latin American are currently reeling from a fierce international land grab.  Investors and national governments are snapping up millions of acres of land that traditional people have used for generations.  These commoners rarely have formal property deeds; as lawyers might put it, they have only ‘customary usage rights.’  The enforceable property rights belong to the government, which in theory acts as a trustee for the people.  But in reality, most autocratic and troubled states find it quite profitable to ignore their public trust duties and sell off vast swatches of ‘unowned’ lands to foreigners.  Bu brokering deals and legalizing title to the land, governments can reap new tax revenues.  Well-connected officials can quietly pocket handsome bribes.  In theory, ‘development’ and prosperity will follow.”

–David Bollier, Think Like a Commoner, p.45.

and another…

“It has become increasingly clear that we are poised between an old world that no longer works and a new one struggling to be born.  Surrounded by an archaic order of centralized hierarchies on the one hand and predatory markets on the other, presided over by a state committed to planet-destroying economic growth, people around the world are searching for alternatives.  This is the message of various social conflicts all over the world – of the Spanish Indignados and the Occupy movement, and of countless social innovators on the Internet.  People want to emancipate themselves not just from poverty and shrinking opportunities, but from governance systems that do not allow them meaningful voice and responsibility.  This book is about how we can find the new paths to navigate this transition.  It is about our future.  But since there is no path forward, we must make the path.”

–David Bollier & Silke Helfrich, The Weath of the Commons: A World Beyond Market & State, p.xi.

Glancing Blow

Fire Opal.  Opal is a Mirror for inappropriate (out of Time) Emotions.

The April 28 Solar Eclipse is a barely Eclipse.  It’ll be Partial in eastern Oz, but other than that it’s a near miss.  It occurs at quarter past 11pm PDT.  It’s busy.

It involves consequences for those who try to Deny Gender Equality or disrespect the Feminine.  That includes overplanning rather than trusting your Intuition.  If you catch yourself doing any of that, you can rescue yourself by Wondering, “How would the Goddess deal with this?”  Then don’t hesitate to apologize and restate yourself. 

It wouldn’t hurt to be alert for this and focus on shifting your Behavior and Thought Patterns accordingly.  Shift your thought Patterns by noticing the offending habit and saying, out loud if it wouldn’t be too weird, “Cancel, Neutralize, Upgrade!” – Cancel the Thought, Neutralize the Energy it created, and Upgrade the Thinker.

The only major Angles made by the Eclipse itself are a Square to Lilith and a Sextile to Neptune, which leaves Lilith and Neptune Quincunx to one another.

Eris is Opposed by the Vesta-Ceres Conjunction, with Haumea between them.  Haumea is Pele’s mother.  Not such a good plan to diss Pele or Haumea.

Saturn is Quincunx to Eris.

Use it as an opportunity to practice your newfound Yintegrity – or to make any remedial adjustments necessary to compensate for situations where you still fear to shed your Masks.  When you catch yourself regressing to your false persona, stop yourself, Communicate that you’re in the process of Change, and then Speak Your Truth.  Recall that Yintegrity means doing what is True to your Self, moment to moment.

The Uranus-Pluto-Jupiter-Mars Grand Cross is still in effect.  The Grand Cross is Bridged my Mercury (Trine to Pluto, Sextile to Jupiter, Quincunx to Mars).

We’re still being Graced by off-planet Energies.  You may encounter circumstances where your Values are violated.  It that occurs, first Ask (PIAVA) “Do I need to protect myself here?”  If so, then do so.  Either way, afterward Ask “How can I grow my Edges to accept this without getting Defensive?”  This is important.

Pallas and the Chariklo-Quaoar-Galactic Center complex Trine one another, with the Nodes at the Midpoints of the Trine – in other words, making a Kite with the North Node at the top.  Chariklo-Quaoar-GC are Squared by Venus, which is in turn Quincunx to Pallas.

Everybody Survive?

Red Tulips; design and photo by Nola Carmen

If you’re reaching for light switches on the wrong side of the door, or can’t remember how to operate the headlights in the car you’ve been driving for years, you know you’ve come out the other side of an Ego Death.  Congratulations.  We’re through the most intense period, so unless you’re still in Resistance or Denial, it should be downhill from here. 

The Grand Cross is “complete” – meaning all four of the Squares have peaked – Mars exactly Squared Jupiter, Opposed Uranus, and Squared Pluto on April 22-23.  Uranus exactly Squared Pluto on April 21.  Jupiter exactly Squared Uranus and Opposed Pluto on April 19-20.  And the Moon crossed Pluto and illuminated Everybody on April 20.

An Angle is most prominent, and increasingly so, during the three degrees leading up to the exact Angle, particularly during the last degree.  Then, once the Angle is exact, the impact tapers off rapidly.  Except…  If we aren’t Conscious about our experience of the Angle (ie, if we ignore the Teaching it offers), then we can make Decisions to Defend ourself against the impact of the Angle.  During the three degrees when the Angle is declining, it’s not the Angle that we contend with, but our Defensive Decisions.  Since they represent a Denial of Reality, one  way or another we need to adjust to the resulting Dissonance.

We aren’t done by any means.  Next weekend, April 26-27, will be a debriefing, where we review what the last few months have been about.  If we’re Conscious, we’ll see how we’ve changed.  Consciousness of Change isn’t necessary; sometimes “you trip out so far you never get back to know that you’ve left” as Kesey once put it.  Conscious or not, you’ll just be up and running confidently on your new version of your Mission by Mayday.

The Moon will cross Uranus and tickle Everybody again on April 26-27.  Mars exits the Grand Cross by April 29, and Jupiter by May 9 – that is, we’ll be dealing with any lingering Dissonance till May 9.

Of course we’ll have to contend with the April 28 Solar Eclipse first, but we’ll cover that in a separate post.

We’ll get some good Epiphanies in early May that will make us feel more comfortable with our understanding of what’s going on.

On May 6 Pluto is the focus of a Mjolnir with Pallas and Mercury, and on May 7 the Moon crosses Pallas and illuminates a Mjolnir with the Uranus-Pluto Square.

But the situation will improve drastically by May 12, when the Heavens conspire to help us out.

Jupiter swings into a Grand Trine with Saturn and Chiron, which endures for the rest of May.

Status Report 5

“Pull back to a wide-angle view and one can see diverse strands of history, politics and commoning crystallizing into a coherent new paradigm.  Some of us dare to imagine a commons renaissance.  A recent book that I co-edited with Silke Helfrich, The Wealth of the Commons: A World Beyond Market and State, documents the staggering international breadth and vitality of commons activities and advocacy.  The commons can now be seen in German ecovillages and Chilean fisher commons; in thousands of open-access scientific journals; in an explosion of alternative currencies used by local communities; and in urban gardens that grow food and social connections.

“These developments bear witness to the reality made abundantly clear by the 2008 financial crisis, that the prevailing dogmas of market individualism, private property rights and neoliberal economics cannot, and will not, deliver the kind of change we need.  And yet the traditional advocates of reform, liberals and social democrats, while generally concerned with market abuses and government malfeasance, are themselves too exhausted to imagine new paths forward.  They are too indentured to the Market/State mindset and cultural outlook, and too naive or spineless in the face of finance capital, to entertain new forms of governance and institutional innovation.  Contemporary liberals and social democrats may pretend to want ambitious social and political transformation (“Change We Can Believe In,” etc.), but the harsh political truth is that they are content to muddle through and cling to the sinecures of power.”

–David Bollier, Think Like a Commoner, p.7.

Status Report 4

I usually try to queue these up till there’s a stack of them, but then I get too many tabs open and my browser crashes and I lose them all.  Or I make a long list in a text file and then forget about it.  Probably more likely to be read in onesies and twosies anyway…

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/04/17/303772556/plant-breeders-release-first-open-source-seeds

You also need to know the term “F1,” which means the same as “hybrid” – namely if you save the seeds you may get mongrels instead of thoroughbreds.  Same goes for “volunteers,” like those cute little fat-leafed Squashes that come up after you spread your kitchen-scrap compost (if you don’t roast your Squash seeds) – most will be mongrels.

A note about forwarding links… 

The original link for this article was something like…

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/04/17/303772556/plant-breeders-release-first-open-source-seeds?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=yourmom&utm_campaign=nogood&utm_term=forever&utm_content=manipulation

(I’ve changed a few things to protect the innocent.)  Everything after the first “?utm…” is tracking information, so the folks who sent the original article can keep track of how effective their campaign is.  They get a “trackback” when someone else clicks on the full link.  If it’s a campaign you started or strongly support, sure, go ahead and forward the tracking information too, in case it becomes useful.

But in general, it’s part of the Google-led (Facebook is just a wannabe) campaign to convert you into an always-on Automaton of Consumption.  Of course that’s Not Evil, how could it be?  And Google didn’t start it, they’re just pushing Consumerism to the Automaton level.  Larry and Serge invest all their genius into the Demand side of the “Your Money” equation, and neglect the Supply side (unless you’re an übergeek).  Yes, that’s unsustainable, but in the interim they can get rich enough to emigrate to Mars.  NPR isn’t by any means immune from promoting Consumerism – they still refer to the Social Security and Medicare your taxes buy as “entitlement,” even when corrected.

For a link like…

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/04/17/303772556/plant-breeders-release-first-open-source-seeds?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=yourmom&utm_campaign=nogood&utm_term=forever&utm_content=manipulation

block off everything after the first “?utm…” ( the part in red italics here), Delete it, and then push “Enter.”  If you don’t see the same website, hit the “Back” button and try again.   Then block and copy the part that remains (in bold), and send that along to your friends.  You’ll be supporting open-source information – aka the Commons.

Status Report 3

“The Market and State, once very separate realms of morality and politics are now joined at the hip: a tight alliance with a shared vision of technological progress, corporate dominance and ever-expanding economic growth and consumption.  Commoners realize that this is not just a morally deficient, spiritually unsatisfying vision for humanity; it is a mad utopian fantasy.  It is also ecologically unsustainable, a crumbling idol that can no longer command the respect it once took for granted.

“In response, the commons sets forth a very different vision of human fulfillment and ethics, and invites people to achieve their own bottom-up, do-it-yourself styles of emancipation.  It has little interest in hidebound party politics, rigid ideologies or remote centralized institutions.  It seeks to build anew, or, as R. Buckminster Fuller memorably put it, ‘to change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.’

“That’s what a robust commons movement around the world is doing.  It is pioneering new forms of production, more open and accountable forms of governance, innovative technologies and cultures and healthy, appealing ways to live.  It is a quiet revolution – self-organized, diversified and socially minded.  It is pragmatic yet idealistic and, for now, only occasionally engaged in mainstream politics or public policy.  Yet it has been steadily growing, in most instances outside the gaze of the mainstream media or the political establishment.  It seems poised to ‘go wide,’ as they say in the movie business, because the various tribes of transnational commoners are starting to find each other.  They are coordinating their work and thinking and developing ways to make common cause in the face of the growing dysfunctionalities and anti-democratic paranoia of the Market/State.”

–David Bollier, Think Like a Commoner: A Short Introduction to the Life of the Commons, p.5.

Status Report 2

More status reports on Planet Earth…

http://www.shareable.net/blog/a-very-short-primer-on-the-commons

http://www.surfingforchange.com/

http://honeythatsok.com/2014/03/22/why-voting-with-your-dollar-doesnt-work/

http://capitalandmain.com/in-plain-sight-the-rise-of-corporate-democrats-in-california/

http://www.organicconsumers.org/bytes/ob420.html

http://honeythatsok.com/2014/04/04/economy-of-insanity-and-apples/

http://www.shareable.net/blog/comprehensive-disobedience-occupying-the-sharing-economy-in-spain

http://honeythatsok.com/2014/01/23/stupid-pink-bra-being-human-in-2014/

http://www.shareable.net/blog/the-tale-of-two-sharing-cities-part-one

http://www.shareable.net/blog/pop-up-stores-build-local-economies-through-sharing

Status Report

In the same way that we have no choice but to appreciate our disruptive “Learning Opportunities,” the folks who’ve been abandoned by the economic malaise of the last seven years are, in a perverse way, getting a head start on the rest of us.  While on the surface the US scheme of flooding the World with dollars is appearing to finally yield some positive results, it’s best not to forget the bottom line – mostly because it could spring up and bite us in the butt at any moment.  Here’s a good summary…

“The prospect of a market collapse is a function of systemic risk independent of fundamental economic policy.  The risk of market collapse is amplified by regulatory incompetence and banker greed.  Complexity theory is the proper framework for analyzing this risk.

“The starting place in this analysis is the recognition that capital markets exhibit all four of complex systems’ defining qualities: diversity of agents, connectedness, interdependence, and adaptive behavior.  Concluding that capital markets are complex systems has profound implications for regulation and risk management.  The first implication is that the proper measurement of risk is the gross notional value of derivatives, not the net amount.  The gross size of all bank derivatives positions now exceeds $650 trillion, more than nine times global GDP.

“A second implication is that the greatest catastrophe that can occur in a complex system is an exponential, nonlinear function of systemic scale.  This means that as the system doubles or triples in scale, the risk of catastrophe is increasing by factors of 10 or 100.  This is also why stress tests based on historic episodes such as 9/11 or 2008 are of no value, since unprecedented systemic scale presents unprecedented systemic risk.

“The solutions to this systemic risk overhang are surprisingly straightforward.  The immediate tasks would be to break up large banks and ban most derivatives.  Large banks are not necessary to global finance.  When large financing  is required, a lead bank can organize a syndicate, as was routinely done in the past for massive infrastructure projects such as the Alaska pipeline, the original fleets of supertankers, and the first Boeing 747s.

“The benefit of breaking up banks would not be that bank failures would be eliminated but that bank failure would no longer be a threat.  The costs of failure would become containable and would not be permitted to metastasize so as to threaten the system.  The case for banning most derivatives is even more straightforward.  Derivatives serve practically no purpose except to enrich bankers through opaque pricing and to deceive investors through off-balance-sheet accounting.

“Whatever the merits of these strategies, the prospects for dissolving large banks or banning derivatives are nil.  This is because regulators use obsolete models or rely on the bankers’ own models, leaving them unable to perceive systemic risk.  Congress will not act because the members, by and large, are in thrall to bank political contributions.

“Banking and derivatives risk will continue to grow, and the next collapse will be of unprecedented scope because the system scale is unprecedented.  Since Federal Reserve resources were barely able to prevent complete collapse in 2008, it should be expected that an even larger collapse will overwhelm the Fed’s balance sheet.  Since the Fed has printed over $3 trillion in a time of relative calm, it will not be politically feasible to respond in the future by printing another $3 trillion.  The task of reliquefying the world will fall to the IMF, because the IMF will have the only clean balance sheet left among official institutions.  The IMF will rise to the occasion with a towering issuance of SDRs, and this monetary operative will effectively end the dollar’s role as the leading reserve currency.

“These threats to the dollar are ubiquitous.  The endogenous threats are the Fed’s money printing and the specter of galloping inflation.  The exogenous threats include the accumulation of gold by Russia and China that presages a shift to a new reserve asset.

“There are numerous ancillary threats.  If inflation does not emerge, it will be because of unstoppable deflation and the Fed’s response will be a radical relation of gold.  Russia and China are hardly alone in their desire to break free from the dollar standard.  Iran and India may lead a move to an Asian reserve currency, and Gulf Cooperation Council members may choose to price oil exports in a new regional currency issued by a central bank based in the Persian Gulf.  Geopolitical threats to the dollar may not be confined to economic competition but may turn malicious and take the form of financial war.  Finally, the global financial system may simply collapse on its own without a frontal assault due to its internal complexities and spillover effects.

“For now, the dollar and the international monetary system are synonymous.  If the dollar collapses, the international monetary system will collapse as well; it cannot be otherwise.  Everyday citizens, savers, and pensioners will be the main victims in the chaos that follow a collapse, although such a collapse does not mean the end of trade, finance, or banking.  The major financial players, whether they be nations, banks, or multilateral institutions, will muddle through, while finance ministers, central bankers, and heads of state meet nonstop to patch together new rules of the game.  If social unrest emerges before financial elites restore the system, nations are prepared with militarized police, armies, drones, surveillance, and executive orders to suppress discontent.”

–James Rickards, The Death of Money, pp.11-13.

When the dollar collapses, we all become Survivalists, not out of choice but out of necessity.

Eclipse Three

We focus on the Angles between the planets here because the Angles tell us how the Energies relate to one another.  Not that planets in Signs aren’t important, we just think that the Angles provide deeper information.  Angles become more prominent when they combine into Configurations – by now you’re all familiar with Grand Crosses and Grand Trines, for instance, like the Uranus-Pluto-Jupiter-Mars Grand Cross that’s challenging our Identity this month, and the Sun-Juno to Pallas to Chariklo-Quaoar-Galactic Center Grand Trine we spoke of in Eclipse and Eclipse Too.

There is a whole class of Configurations based on a “Box,” where two Angles of the same Harmonic are parallel to one another.  The Mystic Rectangle is one, for example, with two parallel Trines separated by two parallel Sextiles.  Even the Grand Cross is a member of this class.  This Eclipse features a Biseptile Box, where two parallel Biseptiles are separated by two parallel Binoviles…

Two Biseptiles (2 x 103) and two Binoviles (2 x 80) don’t quite add up to 360 degrees, so the “slop” (Orb or Sensitivity) between the Angles has to line up right.  We usually use three degrees of Sensitivity, so that’s not too hard.

Biseptiles manifest the Seventh Harmonic, or the principle of Power Applied at the Right Time for Maximum Impact.  It involves a lot of “keeping your powder dry.”  Binoviles are part of the Ninth Harmonic, the principle of Introversion, Self-Examination, and Meditation.  So a Biseptile Box would be about

Reviewing our Effectiveness at Using Power to further our Goals.  

We can’t shy away from Power; remember what the Wormwood Deva said in Findhorn Garden – something on the order of “We respect Power because it allows us to serve God better.”  And that very much includes PIAVA Power.

By and large, the Energies in the Boxes are driven by the Oppositions.  In the current example the Oppositions are the Eclipse itself, and Jupiter Opposite Pluto.

You understand that the major Energy in April is about the Uranus-Pluto-Jupiter-Mars Grand Cross, or a continuation and intensification of our 2012-2015 Work manifesting our True Self and dropping our Masks.  The relationship between this Yintegrity Work and the Eclipse is about

Reviewing our Effectiveness at Owning and Using our Power to Express our True Self.

Given the Asteroids and Stars that are showing up to help out,

We can expect to be confronted by our “Excuses” for avoiding our Yintegrity.  If you’re aware that awkward situations like these may be arising over the next while (the impact of an Eclipse spans 6-18 months), it can help you choose to support yourSelf instead of backing down and reverting to your customary subterfuges.

When that seems to run contrary to your programming – “Be Nice now” is a great example! – you need to PIAVA how you can “Be Nice” AND stay in Yintegrity.  Contradictions occur only in the mind, never in Reality.  To overcome your programmed Self-Abandonment, all you really need to do is stay Open to Both/And.