Sausalito, Ca. March 19. Last Quarter Moon at 27 Sagittarius occurred last Friday. Check Calendar for March 16.

Chiron, the Wounded Healer, was featured, along with expansive Jupiter, who spreads the word. It was an exciting moment in the sky, and everybody came along for the joyride.
I have Chiron at the very top of my chart, and it’s been an exciting time for me. Friday was busy, and a highlight was a lovely, healing visit with a healer friend. Friday night our Pleiades group had its quarterly meeting here. It too was special. We talked about the Equinox chart and its effects on each of us and on the nation. More healing.

Saturday Susan and I went to a Shaman workshop given by Hank Wesselman, two of whose books I have reviewed in these pages. He personified Chiron—a tall rangy man with a beard and flowing hair, sharp brown eyes, and casual dress. He looked like he’d be quite at home in the bush. And Hank is a fine teacher and healer, as was Centaur Chiron. The day was very healing for both Susan and me.

Sunday I just shut out the world and wrote, working on the April issue of Daykeeper. Writing, too, is healing for me.

And today we brought out our first for-pay Daily Calendar! I am absolutely thrilled with the work Susan has done to produce it. Here we see Jupiter in Gemini dispersing information far and wide, along with Mercury in Aquarius, talking about astrology, and Saturn in Taurus, bringing it into tangible form. Transpluto is here, too, resurrecting Daykeeper from the old print form it originally had to a new print form as a PDF file.

Sun at this Last Quarter is on the cusp of my ninth house of publishing!

What am I leaving behind? Both the old Daykeeper, and the idea that creating the new one is super difficult. Suddenly I am seeing my way clear to managing with greater ease. It reminds me of when I began to study astrology. Even with a very fine teacher, perhaps the best, it was a year before I even felt hope of being ever able to put it all together. I’m at that kind of place now with Daykeeper.

And I can’t thank Susan enough for her beautiful, intuitive, and magical work, and her great support.

In the News

Britons are destroying their livestock due to hoof and mouth (U.S. term) disease. It certainly is a turning point for the EU, for Britain, and more, for the whole process of shipping livestock all over. Processing meat now involves transporting livestock between several countries, and that is now being questioned. We certainly see the wounding here, and we will watch for the healing to come. One hope is for more sane, humane treatment of livestock.

Albanians are attacking Macedonia on a quest to enlarge their territory. War is always wounding. Will healing emerge?

Another wounding came from the U.S. Congress. They passed a tough bankruptcy law which will put U.S. debtors in a similar position to third world countries which are forever in hock to the IMF (which is in fact large banks), unable to get out from under debt and interest payments. This is a wounding to the "common" person.

Nature Magazine, the official organ of publishing new scientific findings, came out with a new article on global warming, showing that the pace is increasing faster than had been thought. G.W. Bush at the same time said he will disregard carbon dioxide limits—contrary to his specific campaign promises—and European leaders are coming down very very hard on him, talking about the possibility of a "transatlantic rift." Carbon dioxide is the main contributor to global warming, and the U.S. produces most of it.

Much wounding here, but also the hope of healing. Can the U.S. wake up and change its cultural paradigms quickly enough?

Another hope: great international energy is gathering around protests, teach-ins, and alternative possibilities to corporate rule to be focused on the Summit of the Americas to be held in Quebec City on April 21. The purpose of the meeting is for the U.S. to solidify its proposed Free Trade Agreement of the Americas—FTAA. This is a greatly expanded NAFTA whose aim is to expand corporate rights throughout the Americas so that corporations can challenge government in every area of our lives. Its threat to our remaining democracy is incalculable.

These agreements have been put together, during the years since NAFTA, in complete secrecy. Furthermore, Quebec City is acting as if under siege. It is a walled city, and in addition the Quebec police have put up a huge chain-link fence all the way around the city. Apparently many police from all over Canada will be called out for special duty.

This infringement of the people’s right to know and right to expression is enormous. But action breeds reaction, and the expectation is that, like Seattle, labor, environmental, farm, and social justice groups will form a pro-life coalition. Wounding shows where healing is needed, and where it is possible.

Sausalito, CA, March 13, 2001 (Virgo Full Moon March 7). Check the Calendar entry for March 9. "Independence and freedom from oppression" indeed. Arial Sharon ("The Butcher") has taken over in Israel, and the siege of Ramallah and other West Bank cities has begun. Deep trenches across the roads, Israeli soldiers at checkpoints and on the hills allow nothing and nobody to come in or out of many Palestinian cities. The Palestinians have no voice. The oppression of the Palestinians by the Israelis is unbelievable. Even some Israeli soldiers are appalled.

On the other hand, the unarmed Zapatista caravan arrived triumphantly in Mexico City. They were actually helped by the police, along their route and in the city. They will no longer accept oppression. Said Subcommandante Marcos, "We the people of the color of the earth will never be voiceless again." They are turning down photo ops with Pres. Fox, instead preparing to camp out in Mexico City until Congress passes the legislation agreed to by the Zedillo regime in 1994. Essentially, the Zapatistas want a new society, with autonomy for all, and they are willing to work patiently for it. They are very very popular throughout Mexico. The seed of the Zapatistas was a women’s movement in Chiapas which began on International Women’s Day, March 8, 1993.

New York saw a weekend of Critical Resistance, a demonstration of sisterhood supporting women caught in the prison-industrial complex. In Washington, Northwest Air workers demonstrated at the White House against GW’s interference in their negotiations. In Kiev, Ukraine, there was a huge demonstration against Pres. Kuchma for plotting the murder of a journalist.

"The need for world financial institutions to undergo restructuring is apparent." The stock market, in fact, took a dive on Friday, Full Moon day, and a bigger one on Monday. It may have been catalyzed by GW upsetting the balance of power in Asia. When Pres. Kim Dae Jong of S. Korea visited Washington, Dubya cold-shouldered him. Pres. Kim is a freedom-loving man who has brought democracy to So. Korea and has been working successfully to open doors to N. Korea. About the same time Dubya offered to sell a destroyer to Taiwan, greatly threatening China. And then there is the case of the U.S. sub hitting the Japanese fishing boat in February. In less than two months Dubya has managed to antagonize and frighten most of Asia. So much for U.S. security.

In regard to Virgonian problem-solving, San Francisco has just introduced a fleet of cars-to-share to the city. The entire process is simple and computerized, and works well in Portland and other cities.

Susan, Clarke, and I had another Full Moon birthday picnic under the magical redwoods. The fire reminded us of long-ago campfires, and it was comforting to share one another’s good company around the warmth of the fire. (Mars is now in fire sign Sagittarius.) Family topped my Full Moon happenings. Security, yes.

Sausalito, California, March 8, 2001. First Quarter Moon was on March 2 (see Calendar entry for March 2), but life has been moving too fast for me to catch it until today, when Venus turns retrograde. Many people are expressing this frustration—that they can’t keep up with things, even that they’re slow (even without being old!).

I’m sensing that our planetary vibrational level is raising quickly, and that we are in a process of opening our attention to a more universal level. This is, in fact, the opportunity of Pisces time.

Events are making us look beyond our daily routines and towards larger social forces. In the United States we have the Bush administration moving forcefully on an anti-life path. In California we have the energy crisis. In Europe we have cattle diseases. In Africa we have AIDS. In Asia we have new urges towards greater democracy. In Russia we have a new President trying to regenerate a collapsed nation. In the Middle East we have two groups fighting over one land, threatening a general conflict. In all of the Americas we have moves to increase corporate control, and movements against that process.

And in each of our lives, illness, weather, family changes, and new obligations are forcing us to readjust our lives. The "normal" is no longer the norm. Our predictable lives are becoming unpredictable.

One of the sky formations which shows intense vibrations is the triple Mercury-Uranus conjunction which began January 22 and finishes March 10. This last occurred in early 1916, when WW I was in full swing.

Chiron, who helps us realign to a new way of being, is powerful now. Chiron is hanging around the Galactic Center from February until June, and will return in December 2001 to complete its message from galactic headquarters. We are in a process of receiving major information from the cosmos at many levels of our beings.

This First Quarter Moon shows moon in Gemini opposing the heavy guns of the Sagittarius lineup—Pluto, Pallas, and Mars. This is a prototype of the major configurations of 2001—and the last half of 2000 as well.

The Gemini-Sagittarius polarity does, in fact, dominate the skies from July 2000 – June 2002. The elements are fire and air—volatile, fast-moving, consuming everything in its path. This dominant energy field breaks through to new developments at a First Quarter.

So, all in all, it is no wonder that we feel a bit chaotic or overwhelmed.

In the News

Dubya presents his budget with a huge tax cut, primarily benefiting the rich. The grandiose Sagittarius juggernaut moves on, against its opposite, the Gemini common people. It’s true: the big guns are on the Sag side and will be for as long as Pluto is traveling through Sag, until 2008.

Gemini and Sagittarius each spread things through the air. Together they facilitate all air borne movement, from talk and ideas to micro-organisms to weather systems.

Animals, plants, and humans are all under siege. Britain is literally closed down due to foot and mouth disease in cattle and other animals (Sagittarius is often called the sign of foot and mouth disease because of its tendency to blurt out everything), and all Europe is trying to protect against it. The AIDS epidemic in Africa is in the news on several counts. On the West Coast we have a new fungus which rapidly kills native oaks and is beginning now to attack other native trees and shrubs, such as huckleberry and rhododendron. It spreads very quickly, and there is no known cure or preventative. Here in the Bay Area, we have an epidemic of a very very stubborn respiratory virus. It is debilitating, and lasts for many weeks, sometimes up to three months.

The East Coast, and other parts of the country, have weather systems churning around. Seattle has earthquake cleanup.
On the communications airwaves, Napster's free music downloading is being blocked by the courts. This is a blow, again, to the common person, as well as to Internet free speech. On the other hand, the Zapatistas are journeying through the Mexican countryside, publicizing the struggle for indigenous rights.

Gov. Davis tells us that he has signed 40 energy contracts for California—all of the terms completely secret. California taxpayers have no idea what he is committing us to. But we see in the heavens that the big guys in Sag are in the driver’s seat.

Congress is putting together its first bill to submit to GW for signing. It is an unprecedented attack on worker safety. Last fall Pres. Clinton signed new ergonomic rules, intended to reduce workplace injuries. These rules, developed by OSHA (Occupational and Safety Health Administration) were ten years in the making, and included consultation with the National Academy of Sciences and with business.

This action by Congress is purely and simply an attack on workers, particularly women workers who dominate in the repetitive motion categories of work. The rules are not onerous. Basically, they simply require that employers educate their employees in regard to ergonomics. Only if there are two or more injuries of the same type at the same job within 18 months do they need to make changes. Improved ergonomics would, in fact, be economically profitable for business.

Congress was able to do this under the Executive Review Act, enacted by the Gingrich Congress, and used now for the first time. Furthermore, the Act forbids that this issue ever be addressed again. Incredible!

A major development heavily impacting women of the world which is just now coming to attention is a multinational agreement which has been created in private, GATS, the General Agreement on Trade in Services. It aims to privatize all public services throughout the world, and is likely to have an especially negative impact on women, particularly throughout the developing world.

GATS will move right along now, and hopefully it will become widespread public knowledge in time for effective protests.
On the day Sun squared Pluto, energizing its extravagant fire power in Sag, we had the school shooting in Santee, CA. And Vice-President Cheney was in the hospital having an angioplasty. Heart problems are his nemesis.

Venus Turns Retrograde Now

Venus turns retrograde today. She is in the fighting sign of Aries, and accompanied by Juno, the goddess of married women. Juno wants fairness and harmony, but often gets abuse. Wherever there is disenfranchisement and powerlessness, Juno appears in charts. Juno is also goddess of weather, and in mundane charts storms, earth changes, and accidents are usually accompanied by Juno. "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned," and storms are often called furies.

On the other hand, Juno has special skills in creating harmony. Venus and Juno together represent women’s issues, particularly in regard to fairness and justice. In Aries women will fight for recognition and equality. Later in the month Vesta joins the group. She is the dedicated worker.

In the U.S. the gauntlet for this period has been thrown by Congress acting in a cruel and sadistic manner as they reject worker safety.

In Mexico the Indigenous Congress, meeting now, has as its theme equality of men and women. In Bogota, the Mayor has declared the night of March 9 a time for "men and women to walk in each other’s shoes." Women are invited to go out for a night on the town while men stay home and take care of the kids and the chores.

March is Women’s History Month, celebrated worldwide, and the theme this year is recognition of women’s unpaid work. Many events celebrating women throughout the world are scheduled.

At the University of California the ban on affirmative action has been a dismal failure, and activists are now demonstrating for the return of affirmative action.

In China psychiatrists have officially eliminated "gayness" from their list of mental diseases.

And even in regard to the power industry, and their power over our lives: their crude effort to take over California is having repercussions. Ideas to help people be independent of the power grid which have been around for decades are now hitting public consciousness, and are finding the soil in which to grow.

Juno was once the Great Mother, the goddess of all aspects of life on earth. I suspect that even the deaths of the cattle, and of the trees, are among Juno’s protestations of our abuse of nature.

Juno is finding her power, and she will continue to do so during this Venus retrograde period.

MY PERSONAL STORY now includes feeling disempowered by living with this long-term virus, and feeling swamped by work.

However, Juno is also Fortuna, the goddess of good fortune. (Throwing coins in water comes from honoring Juno.) And she is bringing me a new grandchild! My own Juno conjoins my moon—mother. There is a community of women involved in this birth, working together. I’ll keep you posted.

Sausalito, CA, Feb. 28. New Moon at 5 Pisces occurred February 23. Reread that entry in the February Calendar. The star here was Mars making its debut in Sagittarius. Mars spends the next seven months in Sagittarius, and it’s now giving us a preview of coming attractions. Sagittarius is a sign of exploration, morality, and fraternity. Think missionary.

It’s also the last full moon-month of Saturn in Taurus, and it’s time to put the finishing touches on our personal grounding—finances, home, garden, car, and our material support. It’s 27 years before Saturn comes again to earthy Taurus.

Two historic trips, which will have repercussions worldwide and far into the future, are happening now.

New Secretary of State Colin Powell left on February 23 on a trip to the Mideast and to Europe. Sag is also the primo wheeler dealer, and Sec. Powell did just that. The rest of the world has been wanting the U.S. to lift Iraqi sanctions, and in Brussels Sec. Powell offered to lighten the sanctions if Europe would lower its opposition to the proposed U.S. missile shield.

The Zapatistas, 12,000 strong, began their march from Chiapas to Mexico City, where they hope to persuade the Fox government to follow through on the San Andreas Accords to which the Mexican government agreed in 1994. This is the first time leader Subcommandante Marcos has left Chiapas.

The Zapatistas have great sympathy throughout Mexico, and worldwide as well. They appeared in Chiapas in January 1994, asserting their indigenous rights in response to NAFTA (as well as Mexican oppression), and have been a catalyst for anti-corporate action around the world, simply by their example of determined nonviolent resistance to injustice.

Mars in Sag is bold, and can be rash. Think race car driver. President Bush is proposing big tax cuts, and all of the Republicans—both national and Californian—are proposing cutting through environmental regulations to build power plants quickly, and to open the Arctic Refuge to drilling. In fact, bills are coming up now for voting.

This Pisces New Moon conjoined my Mercury. Mercury in Pisces is boundless, like the sea, like the universe. I want to know and do everything. Reading is my favorite activity because it’s such a relatively fast (although not as good as astral travel) way to be acquainted with many times and places, with many minds and hearts and imaginations. Many Pisces Sun people love to read. I think it’s reminding themselves of all they’ve lived throughout eons. It is the last sign, the end of a cycle, and it may be likened to the experience of having one’s life flash before one at the moment of death.

Pisces is more of the spirit than of the earth, and it’s hard for me to realize (Mercury) that I have human limitations. By 73 years one would think I’d have gotten the message, but I constantly struggle with it. It does become more apparent as I age. And now Saturn in Taurus (my midheaven—purpose) is telling me strongly and firmly, "Look, Maya, you can only do so much, and with limited speed. You are human, you live on this earth, and human aging is slowing down your body."

My mind—Mercury—is really listening to Saturn-in-Taurus’ final advice. Saturn is the planet of limitations—it works with the earth plane—and I’m accepting in a new way that I have limitations, and that it’s OK to let go of much that I have expected of myself.

Reading, studying, and writing is the core of my mental life, and will remain so. This stays—and grows richer with age. Thank you, Saturn, for showing me—paradoxically—the freedom of limitation. And thank you, Sun-Moon, for revitalizing the pleasures of my mind. And thanks to Mars for energizing this whole process.