News Briefs 12-03-2013

Another ignorant piece about astrology from a writer who didn't do her homework: I'm talking about the article in io9.com linked to here -- the one that disses astrologers because they're supposedly ignorant about what it means when a planet is retrograde.

As an astrologer myself, I've never met an astrologer who didn't know the astronomical phenomenon involved in a planet being retrograde.

Furthermore, the fact that the retrograde movement is only an illusion experienced by observers on Earth has no bearing on the astrological meaning of retrograde, since that meaning is symbolic!

Just as we know when we dream of killing our father that we didn't really kill our father, but rather "killed" some psychological component of our father or our relationship with our father -- we know that Mercury (or any other planet) isn't literally moving backwards in the sky, but that this apparent backwards motion has a symbolic or psychological meaning.

Here's something I wrote that might help illustrate further:

In his book "Cosmos and Psyche," Richard Tarnas says the planets don't emit invisible forces that shape our destinies as if we were puppets. Rather, they are symbols of the unfolding evolutionary pattern. Just as clocks tell time but don't create it, the heavenly bodies show us the big picture but don't cause it.

Quoting Greek philosopher Plotinus, Tarnas writes, "The stars are like letters that inscribe themselves at every moment in the sky. Everything in the world is full of signs. All events are coordinated. All things depend on each other. Everything breathes together."

So it's not just the distant globes whose movements and relationships serve as divinatory clues. If you're sufficiently attuned to the gestalt of creation and pay close enough attention to its unfolding details, you can read the current mood of the universe in the arrangement of red onions in the grocery store bin or the fluttering of sunlight and shadow on the mimosa tree or the scatter of soap suds in your sink after you've finished washing the dishes.

Or in the apparent backward motion of the planets in the sky.

sure----lets beat-up astronomers----I think I will stop donating to your website.

Little Door: This comment on the page says it all - White Rabbit said: It leads down into the parking garage.

Mummies with clogged arteries: Mayor Bloomberg of NY is trying to get a law passed that bans the selling of drinks over 16 oz. It has so far failed to get past a judge. My thoughts:

Palpatine Baby: Toby is such a cute little Sith Lord, isn't he? And just in time for the Disney version :P

Quick observation: one link is posted about the forthcoming antibiotic apocalypse due to the shortsigntedness of doctors, scientists and food manufactures flooding the population with antibiotics/antimicrobial agents in everything from our livestock, to handsoaps to overprescribing medications...

Next link says not to fear yet another unproven GMO food - salmon into our food chain/diet. We're already in the midst of the largest science experiment in the history of the planet i.e about 20 years into exposing the world's population to GMO's without any idea what the long-term ramificatios are to humans or the environment. Yet colorectal diseases are rising, as is metastized breast cancers, as are allergies, as are...all possibly/probably related...

Seems obvious in hindsight the overuse of antibiotics in all areas was unwise...seems perhaps the same applies to GMOs. Shortsightedness and greed rule the day!