M A Y A ' S   M O O N   R E P O R T ,   N O V E M B E R   2 0 0 2

As it turned out, Crystal and her husband, Fernando, were a bridge for renewing connections with my long-absent son, Daniel, his wife, Rebecca, and his children. Venus retrograde in Scorpio—along with Mercury—was doing her good stuff. I’ve been communicating with them all since I returned home, and I am thrilled. I said that this New Moon chart was an extraordinarily integrated chart. Our scattered family is finally on the road to being integrated.

What about the family of the nation? It is being integrated under the control of the Republicans, who—with the midterm election—will now control all three branches of government, Congress as well as the Administration and the Judiciary. It’s paradoxical that the national vote went to the Republicans, and yet the stock market fell at the same time.

China had a huge Congress, which elected new party leaders and set new policies. Hu Jintao, who has shunned the spotlight and is known as a loyal party functionary, became leader of the Communist Party. At the same time a continuing move towards capitalism was encouraged.

In the UN, the Security Council agreed on an Iraqi Resolution, and Iraq accepted it. Arms inspectors are now on their way into Iraq.

In the meantime, demonstrations continue around the world against the planned U.S. attack on Iraq. In Italy, 500,000 anti-war protestors marched in Florence. At Livermore Lab, in California, where a "bumper-busting" bomb is being created, hundreds demonstrated in favor of a weapons-inspection system here. Bio-weapons research is also greatly expanding at Livermore.

In Brussels, Vladimir Putin made some crude statements about Chechens and, as expected, categorizes them as terrorists, so that war on Chechnya is equated to war on terrorism, and Russia can now take a free hand in attacking Chechnya.

A huge tornado created deaths and damage in several states from Alabama to Pennsylvania.

U.S. Catholic Bishops met in Washington. They watered down the "zero tolerance" policy, and created a complexity of layers in dealing with the problem of sexual molestation by priests. However, out of this vortex has perhaps arisen a new empowerment of lay Catholics.

California’s investigations into the 2000-2001 energy scam are unearthing pay dirt. One company, Williams, has decided to be a whistle-blower in order to obtain future business in California. One contract is now being re-negotiated to save California $1 billion.

In Washington, the police-surveillance state is proceeding apace. The Pentagon is starting a super-cyber-surveillance system, under the auspices of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which will take a detailed look at all information out there in the ethers. It is under the direction of John Poindexter, convicted criminal in the Iran-Contra scandal. "Orwellian," says ex-Senator Gary Hart.

Congress overwhelmingly approved a Department of Homeland Security, which would be in charge of all "security" information and activities. It will be an enormous projected bureaucracy which ties together at least 15 departments, including the CIA, FBI, Customs, and Coast Guard.

There would be 750,000 employees, whom Bush does not want to be union because he "does not want his hands tied."

Congress passed two major anti-terrorism bills, under pressure from Bush. One is for the government to provide back-up insurance against terrorist damage. Bush portrayed the measure as a jobs bill. The other bill was legislation to tighten security at seaports.

Just before holiday adjournment, Congress agreed on establishing a 10-member National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. This commission is to investigate 9-11.

That same day, the Office of Budget and Management announced new rules made by Bush to open nearly half the civilian jobs in the government to competition from private companies. This would affect about 850,000 federal workers.

Bobby Harnage, President of the American Federation of Government Employees, says, "Bush administration officials are systematically conspiring to bust their unions, gut their civil service protections, and hand over their jobs to politically well-connected contractors."

We began on a happy note, and we will end this Scorpio litany of change on a happy note. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, a liberal from San Francisco, was overwhelmingly elected by the Democratic Caucus to be leader of the Democrats in Congress, replacing Dick Gephardt. This is the first time in U.S. history that a woman has attained this level of political importance. It opens doors for women.