AstroFutureTrends AstroBlog

Update

2008-02-01T12:37:00.000-08:00

I have not been writing blogs lately. Part of the reason is that I got busy with other things in my life. I. I’ve been writing a regular blog for the past 2 ½ years, and was also experiencing a bit of fatigue. Right when things are getting exciting, too—Pluto into Capricorn and the primary elections. I’ll still try to write an occasional blog, but I don’t think that it will be as often as in the past.

I heard someone say recently that they’d gone beyond their own supply line. That’s a little like I’ve felt. My own supply line has always started from within, and I found I was not spending enough time nurturing my own inner self.

I went to an all-day mindfulness meditation in November and that caused me to re-assess a lot of what I am doing in my life. Sometimes it is important to withdraw for purposes of reflection, especially when one feels at some sort of crossroads. At about the same time as that all- day meditation, my secondary progressed Uranus—a key planet in my chart—went stationary retrograde at 0° Cancer and the cusp of my 3rd house…very close to my chart-ruling Venus. A once in a lifetime occurrence, it’s had a huge impact. Add in some other key progressions, like Sun conjunct Neptune, and I feel my life shifting beneath my feet.

I’ve started work on a new book, a departure for me because it is fictional. It’s a young adult mystery novel about a troubled teenage girl who solves a crime with the help of an older female mentor who uses Tarot and astrology. It may go somewhere or it may be just an outlet for creative juices which have been flowing in new directions.

Astrology 2007: The Best, Biggest, and Most Anticipated

2007-12-29T07:55:00.000-08:00

A totally subjective and random look at the wonderful world of astrology in 2007

Biggest astrology trend (a repeat from last year): Astrology blogs. They’ve been growing exponentially. Check out Jeffrey Kishner’s Astrology Blogger Directory, a “comprehensive guide to every Western astrology blog on the web.” By the time you scroll to the bottom of the list, you’ll be in a new time zone, your head spinning in a blissful astro-blogosphere tag cloud. Then check out the blog podcasts and vidcasts. Top Ten Astrology Sources will also keep you happily busy for most of your waking hours.

Second biggest astrology trend: Interest in Mayan cosmology and 2012. Although the apocalypse is what’s simmering in a part of the collective consciousness right now, respected experts in Mayan cosmology are not forecasting any sort of 2012 pre-Columbian rapture. John Major Jenkins’ Maya Cosmogenesis 2012 (which doesn’t really predict an apocalypse and is probably the best of the 2012 books--a fascinating read) has steadily outsold most astrology books on the list of astrology bestsellers. Bruce Scofield’s How to Practice Mayan Astrology has been finding a much wider readership. And there’s been an endless parade of other 2012 books.

Planet of the Year (and probably next year, too): Saturn. When contacted, Saturn merely griped that he could not accept the Planet of the Year award because he was too busy “tightening my rings, sir.” Indeed, Saturn’s coming off the opposition to Neptune, went into Virgo, and recent discoveries indicate that Saturn’s rings are a lot older than previously believed—and thus, perhaps, in need of a little adjusting. Oh well, it’s been a SERIOUS year. Even the comedians have been hard-edged and Comedy Central’s Stewart and Colbert haven’t been doing new shows due to the writer’s strike (although they are scheduled to come back in early January). Pluto’s about to go into Saturn-ruled Capricorn and Saturn’s starting to face off against Uranus. No wonder Saturn’s tightening his rings. He needs to be ready. Damn ready.

Dwarf planet of the year: Ceres. Now that global warming has our full attention, the recently elevated planet Ceres—the goddess of agriculture and seasonal change—is getting a lot of overdue respect. And you gotta love the sub-plot involving a mythic underworld Amber Alert.

Astrology book of the year: Wish I had time to read more books, but there’s been precious little time this year. I’m still trying to catch up with books from several centuries ago. However, my favorite book this year (even though it was published last year) was Venus: Her Cycles, Symbols, and Myths, by Anne Massey. Venus seemed due for a major makeover and Anne Massey masterfully brings her into the 21st Century—yet Venus still maintains an ageless symmetry. A real eye-opener.

Cosmic event of the year: Pluto conjunct the Galactic Center certainly helped to explain a world in transition. For an excellent discussion of this alignment, see Lynn Hayes’ article on her AstroDynamics website.

Most anticipated astrology event that hasn’t happened yet: Tie between 2012—the Mayan calendar end date—and the U.S. election on November 4, 2008. At this point, it is not clear which will be more transformational. Technically, a national election is not an astrology event per se, but this one will coincide with the exact opposition of Saturn and Uranus. Runner-up: Pluto’s entry into Capricorn.

Astrology event most anticipated by me personally: the mid-2007 waning of the Saturn-Neptune opposition. It hit a few of my own planets and I’d just about had it up to here with that alignment, although Neptune kept fogging things up to the point where I could never quite figure out what “it” was.

Least noticed astrology event: The discoveries of other solar systems. The astrology reaction’s generally been like, “Yeah, if I was born on some planet orbiting 47 Ursa Majoris, I might care.” But according to Zane Stein and Debbi Kempton-Smith (authors respectively of A View from Chiron and the irreverent classic Secrets from a Stargazer’s Notebook), these exo-planets might be a lot more potent than we think.

Biggest astrology frustration: The lack of solid birth times for most of the presidential candidates. AKA Looking for Hillary…and Barack…and Mike…and John (at least the one from North Carolina)…and…I realize there are more important issues facing our world today, but hey, if they can answer questions from a snowman on YouTube, the least they can do is have some aide dig up a birth certificate and post it on the candidate’s MySpace page. Inquiring astrologers REALLY want to know.

Best planet, all things considered: Earth. The character of the Stage Manager in Thornton Wilder’s Our Town commented that of all the worlds in the known universe, “Only this one is straining away, straining away all the time to make something of itself.” Hopefully, we can make something better of our own small planet in 2008.

Pluto in Capricorn and the Asteroid that Might Hit Mars

2007-12-21T10:20:00.000-08:00

There is a chance that a large asteroid could hit Mars on January 30, 2008. That is just four days after Pluto makes its entrance into Capricorn—and the precise day when Mars goes stationary direct while it is less than 3° from the U.S. Mars. According to the Associated Press:

A newly discovered hunk of space rock has a 1 in 75 chance of slamming into the Red Planet on Jan. 30, scientists said Thursday.

"These odds are extremely unusual. We frequently work with really long odds when we track ... threatening asteroids," said Steve Chesley, an astronomer with the Near Earth Object Program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The asteroid, known as 2007 WD5, was discovered in late November and is similar in size to an object that hit remote central Siberia in 1908, unleashing energy equivalent to a 15-megaton nuclear bomb and wiping out 60 million trees.

Whether or not the asteroid actually hits Mars, its status as front page news is a synchronous harbinger of Pluto's arrival in Capricorn.

Although Mars is presently in Gemini, Capricorn is the sign of Mars' exaltation (exaltation is one of the essential planetary “dignities"). Pluto brings things to the surface, and while Pluto travels through Capricorn, we are going to see a lot of Mars through this association—along with Saturnine efforts to control and temper Mars' fiery nature. Exaltation does not mean that Mars simply gets to run wild in Capricorn. It means rather that Mars’ tendency to rashness is stabilized and better controlled in Saturn-ruled Capricorn. This sounds positive—Mars is more restrained—but much depends on who or what is doing the restraining.

Mike Huckabee

2007-12-19T10:25:00.000-08:00

The Iowa caucuses are only two weeks away, with the New Hampshire primary soon to follow—and then the big primary blow-out on February 5.

I predicted recently that Mike Huckabee would do well in the Feb. 5 super-primaries, based on the Feb. 6 eclipse hitting his Jupiter. That forecast was made before Mike Huckabee’s amazing surge. It is now looking more and more like he will do very well--and possibly win--in the early Iowa caucuses. He’s a Virgo Sun (like John McCain) and Scorpio Moon (like Mitt Romney). Here’s Noel Tyl’s uncannily accurate interpretation of the Virgo Sun-Scorpio Moon blend:

…mental energies and conventions take on emotional projection. The fastidious ego must be established as the authority, the controlling force. The “missionary spirit” can dominate the work style. The emotions can overexaggerate self-importance. (from Noel Tyl's Synthesis and Counseling in Astrology)

Pluto in Capricorn and Pushing Daisies

2007-12-17T08:02:00.000-08:00

Popular TV shows that feature black humor and death: a "blooming" Pluto in Capricorn trend?

Pushing Daisies (a phrase meaning “dead”) is a new ABC TV series about a young man, Ned, whose touch has the power to briefly resurrect the dead. There are some complicating factors, such as the fact that there's a one minute time limit on each resurrection. If the person stays alive for more than a minute, one touch from Ned can kill that person. And after a minute, someone else has to die. Although its theme is death, Pushing Daisies has a light-hearted tone and has been on many critics’ top ten lists.

Poking fun at death is nothing new, but its mainstream appearance on a finely crafted network TV show just as Pluto is about to go into Capricorn seems significant.

Poem: Bob Dylan in a Rear View Mirror, or My Progressed Uranus Finally Goes Retrograde

2007-11-27T19:30:00.000-08:00

I saw Bob Dylan on VH1 last night,
Gemini hands
fluttering about his mouth.

A long time ago,
in what seemed my last year of youth
I lingered at a party,
listening to “Like a Rolling Stone”
and then sailed for Southampton,
6000 miles from home,
seeking the shelter of Mars and Neptune:
the muffled clang
within a forge in the fog—
a misty nimbus around each spark.

(How did he see
what we could barely
glimpse, a future
with no prophet,
least of all himself,
merely a skilled
and borderless Mercury)?

Once, when Uranus floated like a beach ball
past my Neptune,
I painted a sun on my wall—
it was always rising, just above
the level of the window sill;

staring into its yellow acrylic corona,
listening through headphones to “Love Minus Zero,”
I was only 20 and thought the future
would never get here.

It seemed to be always receding,
a highway 61 shimmering
in my rear view mirror,

and out of the far backwards gaze:
heat waves from a poet
who once wrote songs
with Gemini fingers
trembling above the keys.

Mitt Romney's Horoscope--With a New Birth Time

2007-11-20T19:17:00.000-08:00

Mitt Romney’s birth data has been posted on AstroDataBank.com. According to astrologer Frances McEvoy, quoting Romney, he was born at 9:51 AM. It’s rated A, meaning it is fairly reliable. I’ll post the horoscope soon on my website, but in the meantime, I've posted it with this blog (or you can click here to see it on AstroDataBank). If you’d asked me before I got into astrology (after which I obtained my birth certificate), I’d have told you a birth time I got from my mother which turned out to be wrong by 40 minutes—a big difference in a horoscope. But Mormons are very particular about birth records, so presumably Romney knows very well his own birth time. Up until now, we did not know Romney's Ascendant, Moon sign, Midheaven, or which houses his planets were in.

His rising sign is Gemini, which means that a retrograde Mercury in the 11th house is his chart ruler. The 11th house is about the larger world, society, and politics. With Mars and the Sun also in the 11th house (and Mercury at their midpoint), 11th house matters have figured prominently in Romney’s life, and he is the sun (oops, I mean the son) of a politician--former Michigan Governor George Romney, who also briefly ran for president in 1968.

Romney’s Scorpio Moon exactly conjoins his Jupiter, the closest aspect in his horoscope, near the cusp of the 7th house. That’s how he sees the waiting world as he looks out from his Ascendant: It’s a lucky world, expansive, his oyster. At least that’s how he sees it, and he’s got about 250 million dollars to make it come true.

More on the Election and the Feb. 6 Eclipse

2007-11-18T17:51:00.000-08:00

I mentioned in a recent blog that the Feb. 6 eclipse at 17 degrees Aquarius could cause “party splits and defections” (thanks to Celeste Teal’s Eclipses for that quote about eclipses in air signs). So we might see the beginning of serious party splits and defections after super-primary day on February 5.

Two candidates who have been underdogs—GOP candidate Ron Paul and Democratic candidate Dennis Kucinich—are getting lots of notice, thanks to grass roots support and strong debate performances. Will either candidate manage to influence the November election? Paul or Kucinich--or both--could be a strong force as a third party candidate. The Feb. 6, 2008 eclipse will be hitting within half a degree of the midpoint of Kucinich’s Sun-Uranus trine (i.e. the eclipse will be sextiling both his Sun and Uranus at the same time), possibly energizing his iconoclastic (Sun-Uranus) candidacy.

Hillary Clinton will be strongly affected by the Feb. 6 solar eclipse. It will be hitting opposite the midpoint of her Mars-Pluto-Saturn conjunction. Will this help power her to the nomination? For a dead-on analysis of Hillary, see Maureen Dowd’s recent piece in the NY Times. It should have been titled, “What Can Happen when Someone with a Mercury-Saturn Square and a Mars-Pluto-Saturn Conjunction Seriously—Very Seriously—Runs for President?” Read the op-ed piece, then look at Hillary's horoscope. Then smile knowingly.

Rudy Giuliani’s Jupiter will be magnified by the Feb. 6 eclipse. His Saturn, by the way, sits right on his Midheaven, a perfect symbol of Giuliani’s global law and order political appeal—“America’s Mayor,” indeed.

As we are about to head into Pluto in Capricorn, I think it's interesting that the two leading candidates--Clinton and Giuliani--both have powerful Saturns.

Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, a Republican candidate who has been raising his profile while positioning himself as the real GOP conservative, will also have his Jupiter activated by the Feb. 6 solar eclipse.

The immigration issue, a proxy for cross-border terrorism and a myriad of other collective fears, has become powerful. Borders and boundaries (as well as fears) are ruled by Saturn, so the issue is very Pluto in Capricorn. It'll loom big in the general election--and beyond.

Tolstoy and the Saturn-Uranus-Opposition

2007-11-14T16:44:00.000-08:00

Leo Tolstoy’s Saturn-Uranus opposition (an out-of-sign, or dissociate, aspect) was one of the closest major aspects in his horoscope. I thought this was interesting because we are about to experience a Saturn-Uranus opposition starting next year.

In Tolstoy's War and Peace, the old regime (Saturn in Leo) was breaking apart (Uranus moving from Capricorn into Aquarius): The Russian aristocracy was dancing on its own grave. Although the main historical event of the novel--Napoleon's invasion of Russia--took place well before the Saturn-Uranus opposition, Tolstoy was reflecting his own Saturn-Uranus opposition in the mirror of history.

The shattering (Uranus) of the old social order (Saturn) was a major theme in Tolstoy’s writing, echoing his own life and personal beliefs. Throughout his life, he broke society’s rules. In his youth, he flaunted social conventions, and— although he was born into the Russian aristocracy—Tolstoy sided with the Russian peasants, eventually opening several schools for them on his own land. As he grew older, he adopted the dress and simple living conditions of poor peasants, rebelling against the social order into which he was born.

In the U.S. in 1828, Andrew Jackson, a reform president—the “People’s President”—was elected during the same Saturn-Uranus opposition that was ongoing during Tolstoy’s birth. “Jacksonian democracy” is a phrase which has come to mean government of the common man (an Aquarian ideal).

Saturn also opposed Uranus in 1919-1920, when the old (pre-WWI) world was shattered, and the “new” 1920’s came into being. The mid-1960’s Saturn-Uranus opposition (which also included a Uranus-Pluto conjunction) was marked by the breaking apart of old cultural structures.

We are already experiencing another major change that will gather momentum with next year’s Saturn-Uranus opposition. It's palpable: I step outside my front door and the old world is breaking apart, the ground shifting beneath my feet. In 2010, the Saturn-Uranus opposition will move from mutable signs to 0 degrees of cardinal signs. When the dust settles (and I hope it's only figurative dust), our world will not be the same.

Notes on birth data: Tolstoy was born on September 9, 1828, in Tula, Russia, at 10:52 PM, a time and date considered DD—dirty data—in Lois Rodden’s book Astro-Data II. Astro-Data II also notes an August 28, 1828 birth date. The disparity in birth dates is probably due to different calendars being used. With either date, however, the Saturn-Uranus opposition was very tight. Of course, he had a number of other strong planetary influences in his horoscope, too.

Amazing Astrology Movie--in HD!

2007-11-11T08:47:00.000-08:00

Astrologer Kelly Lee Phipps (who writes the Cosmic Weather blog) has made an astrology movie, Return of the Magi: A Documentary of Astrology, which will premiere at the UAC conference in Denver next year. The trailer is amazing. You can see it here.

Kelly Phipps has written that he had "a vision to create a documentary about authentic astrology on the order of What the Bleep and The Secret." After seeing the movie trailer, I can't wait to see the entire film!

Neil Young: A Scorpio Reborn

2007-11-07T19:10:00.000-08:00

1974: I sat on a bean bag pillow in my small studio apartment in Redwood City, near San Francisco, listening to Neil Young’s album, On The Beach, a coda for the late 60’s, Vietnam, and Nixon. It foretold our own collective craziness. I played it again and again, over and over.

2006: A few months after our daughter left home for a college dorm, my wife and I rented the Neil Young concert documentary Heart of Gold. On the DVD, he introduced one of his new songs (from his Prairie Wind CD) by saying he’d written it for his daughter who’d just left for college, adding that maybe there should be a radio station for empty nesters. The song is called “Here for You”:

Just close your eyes and I'll be there
Listen to the sound
Of this old heart beating for you
Yes I'd miss you
But I never want to hold you down

You might say I'm here for you.

My wife and I sat there on the couch with tears streaming down our cheeks.

November 2, 2007: We attended Neil Young’s concert at the new Nokia Theater in downtown Los Angeles. He’s a 62-year old Scorpio who recently survived a life-threatening brain aneurysm, and several songs off his new CD (“Spirit Road,” “The Way”) reflect a new-found spirituality. He played several songs from this new CD, Chrome Dreams II, which is being hailed as one of his finest recordings in decades. The first half of his show was a solo acoustic set, followed by a second half with his band.

Early in his opening acoustic set, he played “Ambulance Blues,” one of my favorite songs from 1974's On the Beach:

An ambulance can only go so fast
It's easy to get buried in the past
When you try to make a good thing last.

Neil Young may have resurrected some old songs for this concert, but he is anything but buried in the past, trying to make a good thing last. With an exact trine of Pluto and an out-of-bounds Mercury, he has constantly transformed his musical expression.

His out-of-bounds Mercury has been apparent throughout his entire career, as he has constantly sought ways to communicate through different, highly original, and sometimes perversely non-conformist songs. He has played outside of the normal musical box. Uranus also opposes his Mercury, giving him added originality.

This concert of compositions by an out-of-bounds Mercury musician featured an amazing set of songs, only a handful of which were the Neil Young classics ("Heart of Gold," "Tonight's the Night") recognizable to most in the audience. In an indication of the deep respect this musical artist has inspired, the audience was quiet and raptly attentive during his acoustic set as he played a number of little-known, obscure musical gems. People were actually shushing each other (the acoustics in the Nokia Theater were so sensitive that a soft "Shhh" could be heard throughout the theater).

Neil Young has no planets in Earth signs, and his singing has always had an untethered, spacy quality.

His show was perversely old school. Maybe that has something to do with his lack of the Earth element as he pointedly reaches to ground himself in low-tech. I've seen so many music acts which, although excellent, are also a bit soulless due to their heavy reliance on computerized lighting and wireless technology. During Neil Young's concert, I actually saw a human being up in the lights above the stage, changing gels in a spotlight. A cord stretched from Young’s guitar back to a speaker—no cordless instruments on his stage. His opening act was his wife, Pegi (who did a very nice job in her own right). The stage set, intended to reflect a workshop or artist’s studio--a space where creativity happens--had a very funky, down-home quality. It was another original touch from a rock original.

The show highlight was a new song, “No Hidden Path,” which Neil Young spun out for a good 20 minutes of guitar thrusts, parries, jams, and blistering strokes. As the song concluded, the crowd rose to its feet and cheered.

He played for close to three hours. My wife commented, after the concert, on how much passion and energy he displayed. His Mars in Leo and Venus in Scorpio are exactly square and this emotional tension contributes to a release of high energy on stage through his music. He's also got a great deal of stamina: Neil Young has four planets in fixed signs, and his Scorpio Sun trines Saturn.

The photo is from Wikimedia Commons. It is in the public domain and was taken last year at a Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young concert in Canada.

Pluto in Capricorn at a Concert Theater

2007-11-04T18:34:00.000-08:00

I attended a Neil Young concert at the brand new, gleaming, post-modern, purple neon-accented Nokia Theater, which opened last month in downtown Los Angeles. I’ll post an astrological concert review very soon, but was struck with a couple of Pluto in Capricorn observations about the venue:

It’s named after a cell phone company. One huge wall inside the theater lobby displayed different models of Nokia phones. It was like walking into a very large mobile phone store. Corporations are taking over the world. I know this is not exactly breaking news, but I was struck with how in-your-face it’s become.

The security was very tight. I’ve been to plenty of concerts, but nothing ever approached the security we experienced at this theater. To enter, everyone had to walk through brand new airport-style metal detectors, then submit to a pat-down, purse search (and did they ever search, emptying out all the contents), jacket search, backpack search…It was like the theater was being run by the government TSA. The employees working at the security entrances even had on TSA-style uniforms (although I am sure they must have been Nokia Theater uniforms). Mind you, we were all going inside to see the fanatical zealot who wrote “Harvest Moon” and “Sugar Mountain” (and, incidentally, recorded a recent song titled “Let’s Impeach the President”…hmmmm). You can call it security PR, political manipulation that still has everyone freaked out, or a necessary reality of our 21st Century world, but one thing’s for sure:

The times they have changed. The world of Pluto in Capricorn is going to be different.

James Watson

2007-10-29T19:08:00.000-07:00

James Watson, along with Francis Crick and Rosalind Franklin, revolutionized modern biology with the discovery of the DNA strand in 1953. Unfortunately, Watson has just added a black mark to an otherwise illustrious scientific career. In a published interview, he made several shockingly racist statements.

According to Wikipedia, Watson

…was quoted in an article for the Sunday Times Magazine published on October 14, 2007, that he is "inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa" because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours – whereas all the testing says not really." He stated that he hopes that everyone is equal, but "people who have to deal with black employees find this not true."

Sadly, these views were not new. He had expressed similar ideas in the past, but they were overlooked. Although he apologized, these recent statements led to Watson’s resignation from the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where he had spent most of his career.

A look at Watson's Vedic horoscope is helpful in understanding the timing of this abrupt career about-face. A little over two years ago, Watson began his Venus mahadasha, signifying a new major life period. These mahadashas—planetary periods—take up major chunks of life and one can usually find life themes particular to each mahadasha and its planet (or lunar node). In Watson's Vedic horoscope, benefic Venus is exalted in Pisces, meaning that it takes on extra power. It conjoins both Jupiter and the Sun (in Vedic astrology, planets occupying the same house/sign are said to be conjunct, no matter how many degrees apart they might be, although the closer they are the more powerful their influence becomes). Venus is strong in other ways, too, in Watson’s Vedic horoscope. A Venus mahadasha would thus seem to portend an auspicious astrological period for James Watson.

So where’s the astrology behind a career-ending humiliation and the revelation of views—Watson’s private face— antithetical to social progress from a man who with his public face contributed greatly to scientific progress and the mapping of the human genome? Although there are several astrological influences at work in Watson's Vedic chart to answer this question, one seems particularly relevant: Watson’s Venus is in the nakshatra (one of the 27 lunar mansions) called Purva Bhadrapada. When a new mahadasha begins, it is associated with a planet (or node of the Moon), and the nakshatra or lunar mansion where that planet resides assumes much greater importance in life. Normally, a benefic planet like Venus would bring out the best in a nakshatra. However, that is often not the case with Purva Bhadrapada. It is associated with a funeral cot (where bodies are placed to be burned).

Another commonly used symbol for Watson’s Venus nakshatra? A man with two faces.

James Watson was born April 6, 1928; 1:23 a.m.; Chicago, Illinois; source: NCGR Memberletter article on DNA’s Golden Anniversary, by Anne Ortelee, April/May issue, 2003; not sure what the Rodden rating is.

Jude Cowell on Mars Out of Bounds

2007-10-27T07:31:00.000-07:00

Jude Cowell, in her Jude’s Threshold blog, has been writing some very interesting observations about Mars out of bounds and the California wildfires.

What does the term "out of bounds planets" mean? Out of bounds planets are those whose declination--the distance north or south of the celestial equator--exceeds the maximum declination of the Sun (23° 27’, which occurs at the summer and winter solstices). Pamela Welch, in her very good introduction to declination and out of bounds planets, writes,

Everyone has probably heard that old familiar sports term: "Out-of-bounds!" Regardless of the sport involved, these words mean that the ball or player has gone beyond the limits of the established field of play....Out-of-bounds planets can take us beyond the established limits of thought and action. They can signify extraordinary genius or point to volatile and aberrant behavior.

Jude Cowell noted that the recent California conflagration seems to be an astrological echo of an out of bounds Mars in Cancer pattern that was present during the 1993 Branch Davidian massacre at Waco.

This made me think of FEMA’s widely reported Orwellian fake news conference two days ago, in which the federal agency’s director fielded softball press conference questions about FEMA’s handling of the wildfires from…his own staffers posing as reporters (Q: “Are you happy with FEMA’s response so far?” A: “I am very happy with FEMA’s response so far.”). The government agency charged with handling homeland emergencies (Mars in Cancer) went out of bounds.

Astrologer Moses Siregar on the California Wildfires

2007-10-25T06:10:00.000-07:00

Although my own home is not threatened by any of the fires, I live in Ventura County, California, and I have watched thick black smoke belching ominously over the hills in the distance. Astrologer Moses Siregar III, who skillfully weaves together Western and Eastern (Vedic) astrology, just wrote about the roles of Saturn and Ketu--the lunar south node--in the California wildfires. Ketu is often thought to be involved in mass disasters. You can read the article on his website, Astrology for the Soul, but here's an excerpt:

Ketu is in Vedic thought a very fiery planet. Saturn, in turn, rules air. Both are considered natural malefics. The combo of fire and air in an intense and difficult manner is pretty obvious here in terms of results. Additionally, Ketu rules fire and Saturn, according to many, rules structures and real estate. Pretty clear significations, no?

By the way, Saturn and Ketu conjoin about every eleven years, so this doesn't happen very often.

In terms of location, Vastu (vedic science of space, like Hindu Feng Shui) says that Saturn rules the West and the Moon's Nodes are sometimes said to rule the Southwest. Where are the fires? Literally in the West-Southwest corner of the country.

Presidential Candidates' Horoscopes and Birth Times...or Not

2007-10-17T19:00:00.000-07:00

I’ve done a much-needed update of my web page that has horoscopes of presidential candidates. I’m sorry I had not kept it up to date with the shifting field of presidential candidates. I’ve added Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich, among others. There is lots of erroneous information out there about birth times for this or that candidate. One needs an accurate, verified birth time to get an Ascendant and house cusps. A lot of the candidates are question marks in terms of their birth times—no matter what you read elsewhere.

With the exceptions of John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, and Dennis Kucinich, we do not know the accurate, verified birth times of any of the other candidates. We therefore do not know which houses the planets are in or what the Ascendant and Midheaven are for anyone except McCain, Giuliani, and Kucinich. Kucinich happens to be the only candidate whose birth time comes directly from his actual birth certificate. Hillary Clinton’s birth data is rated DD—conflicting and unverified—by Astrodatabank.com. Astrodatabank is like the central clearing house for birth data. If the birth time is out there, they know.

Several months ago, the New York Observer published an excellent article on the Feb. 6 eclipse and the election. The article paid particular attention to disagreement over the birth time for Barack Obama . Several astrologers commented about the affect that the Feb. 6 eclipse could have on his candidacy, either for good or bad. One thing I’d add is that eclipses are influential within three degrees of a planet or angle, and none of Obama’s Leo planets are within this orb of influence for the Feb. 6 eclipse at 17° Aquarius. However, his birth time becomes critical because if it is indeed 1:06 PM (as suggested by some astrologers, but thus far unverified), then the eclipse will be right on Obama’s Midheaven/IC axis, signifying a big effect on his home and career.

Eclipse and Super-Primary Day on Feb. 5, 2008

2007-10-15T19:27:00.000-07:00

On February 5, 2008, a super-primary election will select Democratic and Republican presidential nominating delegates in 20 states, including California, New York, and Illinois. One day later, on February 6, there will be a very powerful total solar eclipse on the Aquarius-Leo axis, at 17° Aquarius.

Celeste Teal, in her comprehensive and already-classic book Eclipses, writes that eclipses in air signs can signify “party splits and defections” in politics. Perhaps super-primary day—a day before the eclipse—will prove to be the formative event for third party (or even fourth party) candidacies in this national election. The GOP, especially, seems primed for this because no Republican candidate has yet been able to lock up the conservative vote. In addition, candidates like Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich have passionate supporters who may feel disenfranchised if the deal seems sealed in early February and who could then push for their candidates to mount separate third party campaigns.

Astrology Blog: Pluto in Capricorn and Big Business Control

2007-10-13T07:51:00.000-07:00

Capricorn is, among other things, the sign of big business. When Pluto goes into Saturn-ruled Capricorn early next year (although due to retrogradation it won’t be in Capricorn to stay until November 27, 2008), big businesses will try to exert ever-more control over our private lives and the boundaries of personal expression.

I wrote in a recent blog about how Pluto in Capricorn could “bring a heightened awareness of the fragility of our own privacy—along with government or corporate attempts to misuse private information.”

As businesses braid and twine their services ever more tightly into our lives, we are more vulnerable to manipulation and control. Another telling example and precursor to what we can, unfortunately, expect:

Verizon and AT&T both inserted a clause into their new service contracts stating that an individual's Internet services could be terminated if a customer badmouths Verizon, AT&T, or one of its “business partners” (which would include Yahoo, Verizon’s online partner). Both companies have since agreed to rescind this provision and replaced it in the service contract with a noble paean to free speech--a change which came about only after the matter was brought to light by the L.A. Times and received widespread negative publicity in the blogosphere.

A few days ago, the L.A. Times’ consumer reporter, David Lazarus, wrote in an article titled, “Free Speech Could Lead to Online Disconnect”:

If you're displeased with the way a company treats you, you're free to air your feelings in public, right? Not necessarily if you receive high-speed Internet access from AT&T Inc. or Verizon Communications Inc.

Buried deep within both companies' voluminous service contracts is language that says your Net access can be terminated for any behavior that AT&T or Verizon believes might harm its "name or reputation," or even the reputation of its business partners.

The language came to light the other day after AT&T sent notices to thousands of customers revising their service contracts as part of the company's merger last year with BellSouth....

...Before that, AT&T was caught in August censoring political comments made by Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder during a concert webcast. The company later said it had made a mistake.

AT&T and Verizon say they've never enforced the can't-criticize-us contract terms, which have been in place for years.

But the provisions highlight yet again the danger to free expression when a relative handful of private companies serve as gatekeepers to information networks. Whether it's a rock star ranting against President Bush or a disgruntled customer griping about shoddy service, how free is free speech in the digital era?

Music Makes My Heart Sing: The Grateful Dead's Phil Lesh

2007-10-07T08:48:00.000-07:00

I went to see Phil Lesh, longtime bassist for the Grateful Dead, perform recently with his band, Phil Lesh and Friends. He has a fascinating horoscope. I don’t know his birth time, but he is a creative, artistic Pisces, born March 15, 1940, in Berkeley, Calif.

Phil Lesh has a perfect bowl pattern in his horoscope: A retrograde Mercury in Pisces sits exactly opposite his retrograde Neptune in Pisces, a phenomenon known as mutual reception wherein two planets rule each other's signs, strengthening the power of the two planets. All his other planets are on one side of that opposition. The bowl pattern shows a person who is self-contained, subjective, and mission-oriented.

One of my favorite Grateful Dead songs, “Box of Rain,” was composed and sung by Phil Lesh (the Dead lyricist Robert Hunter wrote the words), and it is a song which seems to have come out of Lesh’s Piscean, Mercury-Neptune soul. “Box of Rain” was written for his dying father. From Wikipedia: “According to lyricist Hunter, Lesh ‘wanted a song to sing to his dying father and had composed a piece complete with every vocal nuance but the words. If ever a lyric wrote itself, this did—as fast as the pen would pull.’ Lesh practiced the song driving to the nursing home where his father lay with terminal cancer”:

This is all a dream we dreamed one afternoon long ago….
Please don’t be surprised when you find me dreaming, too….
Maybe you’re tired and broken,
Your tongue is twisted with words half spoken and thoughts unclear
What do you want me to do, to do for you to see you through?
A box of rain will ease the pain, and love will see you through.
Just a box of rain, wind and water,
Sun and shower, wind and rain.
In and out the window like a moth before a flame.
Such a long long time to be gone, such a short time to be here.

Hunter once wrote, in answer to a question: “By ‘box of rain,’ I meant the world we live on, but ‘ball’ of rain didn't have the right ring to my ear, so box it became, and I don't know who put it there.”

67 year-old Phil Lesh himself just recently survived a bout with prostrate cancer, as Pluto squared his Sun.

Lesh also has an exact conjunction of Venus, Mars, and Uranus. He has always had an interest in avant-garde music, and he is still finding ways to make original, freeing music filled with energetic beauty. And unlike many other older rockers, Phil Lesh is not surrounded on stage by a gray-haired, balding band. Phil Lesh and Friends’ lead guitarist, musical phenom Jackie Greene, is a full 40 years younger than his mentor, Phil Lesh.

My story of the first Grateful Dead concert, when they were called the Warlocks and performed at Magoo’s Pizza Parlor in Menlo Park, California, is recounted in some detail in my book (in a chapter on the 1960’s Uranus-Pluto conjunction). Actually, Deadheads were some of the first to buy my book when Cosmic Trends was mentioned in a Grateful Dead blog. I was in the audience at that pizza parlor concert, but wrote about it in the third person for my book.

When I was a junior or senior in high school, Phil Lesh lived just a few blocks from our high school campus in Palo Alto. A friend of mine knew him and, since we had an open campus, a few friends and I would often walk over to his house during lunch to hang out. Usually, he was just waking up, but was always friendly and welcoming. He would have been in his early 20’s at that time and was just starting with the Dead—who were no more than a local band, having not yet even performed in San Francisco. I never became a Deadhead, but have enjoyed their music over the years.

In concert, Phil Lesh sang a number of Dead classics, ending with the beautiful “Broke-down Palace.”

He was low-key Pisces all the way. At the Santa Barbara Bowl, where my wife and I saw him perform, one can always see the fancy, sleek, polished star tour buses parked next to the stage. Phil Lesh—who is probably quite wealthy and was playing to what looked like a capacity audience at the start of a fall concert tour—had two large Enterprise rental trucks. While his crew was setting up on stage, he was hanging out over by the drum set, chatting with friends and band members. His “star entrance” involved taking a few steps downstage to begin the concert.

Most bands have an opening act and then think they’ve given the audience their money’s worth by playing a 90-minute set. Phil Lesh and Friends was their own opening act. They took the stage at 6:00, played one long set, took a short break, then came back and played until 10:00. That’s almost four hours of music from the same band.

Mars in Cancer

2007-10-02T16:49:00.000-07:00

Mars in Cancer: The following is an update of a short section on Mars in Cancer that was in my recent Mountain Astrologer article on Mars.

Starting just a few days ago on September 29, and lasting for about six months, Mars is in Cancer (although it will briefly move back into Gemini during that time). True, Mars goes through Cancer every two years, but as Lynne Hayes has pointed out, it’s not often that it goes retrograde and spends almost half a year in the same sign. Lynn also notes that Mars in Cancer tends to adopt a more defensive, less aggressive attitude. While Mars is in Cancer, it will be hitting the U.S. Sun.

1960-61 and 1992-93 were the two most recent instances of Mars going retrograde while in Cancer. Both times, quite coincidentally, marked transitions to new U.S. leadership—Kennedy was elected in 1960 and Clinton in 1992. Kennedy’s election, especially, revolved around Cold War martial issues of national defense. Although Mars will have moved out of Cancer by the time of the national election next November, it will be in Cancer throughout the primaries. As I have pointed out in other articles, there is a lot in common between the coming election of 2008 and the one in 1960.

Throughout its lengthier sojourn through Cancer, defensive martial energy will be hitting the U.S. Cancer planets: the Sun, Mercury, and Jupiter. In a synchronous alignment with the U.S. horoscope, transiting Mars in 2008 will be stationary retrograde when it hits the U.S. Sun in mid-November, 2007, and then go stationary direct on January 30, 2008, when it will be less than 3° away from the U.S. Mars.

Martial energy will be strongly influencing the U.S. as it moves into the early presidential primaries. This does not mean we are going to invade Iran. The retrograde motion of Mars symbolizes the re-evaluation and re-consideration of military force as it has been applied to the Iraq War. This is already happening. House hearings into the Blackwater defense contract, and the use of outside contractors as a supplemental army with little accountability, began today (is it just me, or doesn't the use of heavily armed protectors riding rough-shod through the streets and wielding shoulder-fired rockets to protect diplomats appear to subvert the entire idea behind diplomacy?).

Cardinal ingress charts, when the Sun first enters each of the four cardinal signs during the year, can be good prediction tools. A Capricorn ingress chart (see below--you can click on the chart to make it bigger) is especially useful for the upcoming presidential primary elections, which are all clustered in the first three months of the year. A Capricorn ingress chart for the end of 2007, leading into 2008, reveals five planets clustered around the cardinal axis of Cancer-Capricorn. Mars in Cancer opposes a Capricorn stellium of Pluto, Sun, Jupiter, and Mercury. Jupiter at 0° Capricorn conjuncts the Sun exactly, showing enlargement of issues surrounding the presidency (Sun) as we move into an election season.

The fact that Mars is opposite Pluto—as well as three other planets—in the Capricorn ingress chart shows that military action (i.e., the Iraq War) will be a major national issue in the election. Mars, although debilitated in Cancer, is the most elevated planet in this ingress chart. However, since this ingress chart is setting the tone for an election year, complete with primaries and the election of a new president, Mars’ position shows that the political debate will revolve not just around the Iraq War but around the appropriate projection of military force—in other words, national “defense.”

Marcel Marceau and the Sounds of Silence

2007-09-29T12:55:00.000-07:00

On September 22, during his Uranus return at the age of 84, the great French mime Marcel Marceau passed away, stepping out of his physical cage and into Silence.

When I was a young boy in the 1950’s, my mother (an always ahead-of-her-time Sagittarian who loved to experience anything new and different) took me to see Marcel Marceau perform in Boston. I can still recall the perfume of a woman sitting next to me in the theater balcony, a scent which to this day somehow permeates my memory of Marcel Marceau. I fell in love with his magical, poignant performance, a fluid blending of universal compassion and clown-like fantasy. It was something that even--and perhaps especially--a child could grasp. When he felt his way out of a dark invisible cage only to discover another one containing it…trapped in a cage within a cage within a cage…my Sun-Pluto soul understood that perfectly.

According to his biography on Wikipedia,

Marceau created "Bip" the clown, who in his striped pullover and battered, beflowered silk opera hat — signifying the fragility of life — has become his alter ego, even as Chaplin's "Little Tramp" became that star's major personality. Bip's misadventures with everything from butterflies to lions, on ships and trains, in dance-halls or restaurants, were limitless. As a style pantomime, Marceau was acknowledged without peer. His silent exercises, which include such classic works as The Cage, Walking Against the Wind, The Mask Maker, and In The Park, as well as satires on everything from sculptors to matadors, were described as works of genius. Of his summation of the ages of man in the famous Youth, Maturity, Old Age and Death, one critic said: "He accomplishes in less than two minutes what most novelists cannot do in volumes."

Marceau’s performances were rooted in a rich theatrical history going all the way back to the ancient Greeks, but a number of modern mimes had their origins with Marcel Marceau. The 1966 Anontioni movie Blowup used the character of a mime to explore the differences between appearance and illusive reality.

Said to have been the inspiration for Michael Jackson’s signature moonwalk, Marceau had his Sun on the Aries Point—0° Aries, a cardinal degree which is one of the indicators of fame. His Mercury conjoined Uranus exactly in Pisces, the silently flowing water sign. Mercury can have difficulty expressing itself through normal channels of communication when in Pisces, and Marceau communicated best through the unconventional language of silent pantomime. I think that helps to show us that even "poorly placed" planets (Mercury is supposed to be debilitated in Pisces) can find interesting ways to express themselves, shine, and even excel.

He also had a powerful Aquarian Venus, which squared Jupiter and trined Saturn. Venus in Aquarius can signify a universal appreciation, human differences seen through a common lens. Through his Venus-Jupiter square, Marceau captured the human moral condition.

Marcel Marceau's Saturn was exalted in Libra, exactly opposite his Sun and trine Venus--to watch Marcel Marceau was to view an exalted balance of physical form and function. He also had a Mars-Neptune square, contributing to his imaginative use of physical action

Concidentally, another silent star, Charlie Chaplin, had a similar mix of planetary energies: Mercury opposite Uranus instead of conjunct, and a retrograde Venus square Saturn.

One would think that a famous mime might have a strong, Mercury-ruled Virgo or Gemini—a mime, after all, is supposed to mimic or imitate. Marceau does not have any planets in either of those signs, but the French astrology website AstroTheme shows an 8:00 a.m. birth time, which would give Marceau a Gemini Ascendant--and make Mercury his chart ruler.

Astro-Links: Astrologer Alan Oken on Libra

2007-09-23T08:21:00.000-07:00

Astrologer Alan Oken has a monthly newsletter, published when the Sun changes zodiac signs. Oken has a spiritual approach to astrology that I like very much. He just wrote about Libra and discussed the spiritual natures of Libra and its ruling planet, Venus. I thought this part was especially beautiful:

…the exaltation of Venus, the zodiacal placement in which both this planet and its signs are raised to a higher level, a level where personal love becomes permanent, is Pisces. It is in the sign of the Fish that the unions, polarities, and ideals of Libra are washed in the waters of pure love, “the love that passeth all understanding,” the Love Divine in which we all have our breath and being. Does this mean that all personal love is a futile dream? Not at all. It is wonderful to love on the personal level and to cherish others with great passion. The lesson here is that eventually all personal love of passion eventually is bathed in the compassion of a greater Love and it is here that Venus truly waits for us and spins out her magic. Libra is the sign that brings about the situations of interpersonal attraction that lead eventually to an even greater union; the marriage of the personality and the soul. When this happens, the Spirit rejoices.

Note: The picture image has been released into the public domain by its author, as noted on Wikimedia Commons.

Astrology Blog: My Wedding Horoscope

2007-09-22T08:01:00.000-07:00

My wife and I just celebrated our wedding anniversary. We were married 22 years ago in Wailua, Kauai, at 10:00 in the morning, while the Sun was still in Virgo. Just the two of us, plus a minister, two witnesses, and a photographer.

The wedding event chart has turned out to tell its own story.

Several years after we were married, I got into astrology and did our wedding horoscope. I discovered that all the planets lined up on the left side of the horoscope (where the Ascendant is located and referred to, counter-intuitively, as the Eastern hemisphere in astrology). A strong preponderance of planets on that side of the horoscope is said to indicate a more self-reliant course in life. (A lot of planets in the other hemisphere, the side with the Descendant, shows a life whose direction is strongly connected with, and motivated by, others.) This total Ascendant-side planetary pattern was the story of our wedding--and, to a large extent, our marriage over the years.

The marriage was my wife’s second, my first. I was a bachelor with an emotionally rebellious streak (Moon square Uranus) and resisted marriage until I was in my late 30’s. Someone else I know with a Moon-Uranus square is just getting married for the first time—and he’s 50!

Neither Karin nor I really wanted a big, splashy wedding. We’d planned on getting married at the SRF Lake Shrine, near Los Angeles. It’s a beautiful spot and popular for weddings. But we soon found that our dream of a small, low-key wedding had mushroomed into a big affair, much bigger than either of us wanted. So with the understanding of both our families, we scrapped the original plans and just did it our way, choosing to get married in Hawaii all by ourselves. When we returned to the Mainland, both our families would have receptions so they could participate. My wife’s father—who appreciated informality and anything where he didn't have to wear a tie—was especially supportive of our “elopement.”

I'd lived in Hawaii a couple of times, and Karin had always wanted to go there. I looked forward to sharing the experience with her. We planned to get married on the island of Kauai after spending several days on Maui. We knew that the details could be worked out once we got there--in fact, we loved the idea of having the freedom to be more spontaneous. I’d checked ahead of time to make sure we had everything in order to legally get married once we arrived in Hawaii.

My wife chose a beautiful wedding dress in Lahaina, then we flew to Kauai and were married. After the wedding, we went out for lunch at a local seafood restaurant next to the Wailua River and then took a boat up the river to the romantic Fern Grotto. We were the only passengers in the boat. It was intoxicating. We could not have asked for a better--or more romantic--wedding. It was perfectly reflected in the wedding chart, where all the planets were on the "We'll take charge of our own wedding" side of the horoscope.

Our Scorpio Ascendant, Uranus-and-Saturn rising wedding chart also had an exact conjunction of Jupiter and the Part of Fortune. The crescent Moon was in the first quarter, denoting a new beginning. Venus conjoined the fixed royal star Regulus, which boded well for our marriage. The Arabic Part of Marriage (like the Part of Fortune, but for marriage) was in the 9th house--we traveled 2500 miles from home to get married in a tropical paradise.

Astrology Blog: Neptune in Aquarius and Internet Romance

2007-09-16T08:08:00.000-07:00

Dell Horoscope has published my article, "Neptune's Dreamy Drama of Love: Wedded Bliss or Romantic Fantasy?" as their cover story in the new October issue. My article looks at Neptune’s role in romantic love, when love overflows the boundaries of the heart and we merge with another person. Included in my article is a look at how Neptune through the signs has influenced the culture of romance. I also used the horoscopes of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt to explore Neptune’s hidden passageways and the fine line between love and fantasy. Dell Horoscope can be ordered directly from Dell and is available at many news stands.

Although we usually think of Venus when we talk about love, Neptune relates to anything which causes our consciousness to overflow its normal ego boundaries. Neptune can be that “high” of falling in love and swimming in heart-currents. One thing I mentioned in my Dell article is that since Neptune entered Aquarius in 1998, there has been a surging trend in online dating and matchmaking sites. More and more people are meeting through Internet sites like eHarmony (founded in 2000) or Match.com and actually getting married as a result.

Along those same lines, I am reading a fascinating new book called Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow’s Big Changes. The author, Mark Penn—a Democratic strategist currently working for Hillary Clinton—does a good job of “niching” modern popular culture.

One short section of Microtrends is devoted to what Penn calls “Internet Marrieds.” The perception of online dating, he says, has changed and is now considered a very acceptable way for singles to meet. One in four singles, he writes, “use the 1,000 or more dating Web sites out there…The previous venues for finding mates…are being replaced by where the new generation is to be found—at the office, and on the Internet.” Penn notes that, so far, most marriages which grow out of Internet matches seem to be stronger than average.

We can probably look for Neptune’s passage through Aquarius to continue the merging of romance and DSL connections.

Astrology Blog: Pluto in Capricorn and Digital Privacy

2007-09-13T07:26:00.000-07:00

Pluto in Capricorn, just months away, is likely to bring a heightened awareness of the fragility of our own privacy—along with government or corporate attempts to misuse private information. Pluto is the modern ruler of Scorpio, a sign associated with secrecy and privacy--qualities which can be strengths in many Scorpios, who often possess a silent, steadfast depth. But when Pluto transits a whole sign, the negative side of that sign is often made visible in the world, culture, and society. Pluto does not mind probing the darkness, and it can focus in on things which are hidden.

Capricorn, on the other hand, is ruled by Saturn and is associated with government and business. The sign of the mountain goat is noted for being able to alertly scan the environment for tactical information. That can be positive or negative, depending on how it is used. A successful business must be able to “read” the outer world and make nimble, strategic adjustments quickly in order to compete and achieve its goals. When combined with Pluto, though, this can lead to corporate attempts to succeed by probing a consumer’s private information.

Many phone and cable companies now bundle their services. My own phone company, Verizon, offers a digital package of DSL internet, cable TV, and wireless phone services. Companies like Verizon and Time Warner have positioned themselves to keep valuable and detailed databases which track an individual’s website visits, TV viewing habits, phone calls, text messages, and even e-mails. Given the amount of supposedly private time many consumers spend online, using a cell phone, and watching TV, Verizon and Time Warner probably know more about some people than their own closest friends or spouses. A lack of government oversight has also contributed to the expanding power of businesses to peer deep into our homes and private lives.

Here’s an excerpt from a recent L.A. Times article, “Your Loss of Privacy is a Package Deal”:

…for anyone who has the wherewithal to read Time Warner's 3,000-word California privacy policy, you discover that not only does the company have the ability to know what you watch on TV and whom you call, but also that it can track your online activities, including sites you visit and stuff you buy.

Remember all the fuss when it was revealed last year that Google Inc. kept voluminous records of people's Web searches, and that federal authorities were demanding a peek under the hood? Multiply that privacy threat by three.

Internet, TV, phone -- it's hard to imagine a more revealing glimpse of your private life.

"All your eggs are in one communications basket," said Beth Givens, director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse in San Diego. "If a company wants to, it can learn a great deal about you -- and it probably wants to."

More often than not, it'll also want to turn a fast buck by selling at least a portion of that info to marketers.

All leading telecom companies are aggressively pushing these bundled service plans after investing billions of dollars in high-speed digital networks. For consumers, the upside is often a hefty savings compared with acquiring the same services from multiple providers.

The downside is that you're making intimate details of virtually all your network activities available to a single company—and possibly government officials….

…There are red flags to be found in each telecom provider's privacy policy.…That's not to say Time Warner or any other service provider is reading people's e-mail or invading users' privacy in any other way. The point is, they're explicitly saying they could….

…At least you don't have to worry about these companies knowing things about you after you take your business elsewhere, right?

Wrong.

Near the very bottom of Time Warner's privacy policy, the company discloses that it maintains personally identifiable info about people "as long as you are a subscriber and up to 15 additional years."

This is just the tip of a huge Pluto in Capricorn iceberg. By law in California, where I live, consumers are allowed to opt out of a company’s use of personal information. Having a Sun-Pluto conjunction, I am usually pretty obsessed with opting out. Whenever possible, I make sure my name gets removed from mailing lists, credit card applications, marketing directories, etc. According to the Times article, Time Warner requires subscribers to opt-out in writing, but neglects to include one important feature in its opt-out notice: a mailing address.

Note: Photo is from Wikimedia Commons: "Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License..."