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Astral
Prelude
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The Universal
Festival Calendar begins this month
a major shift in emphasis. Those who
are regular readers of this material
know that last month's forecast of "religious
violence and sustained military action"
proved appallingly true in India, and
continues to play out in Israel and
Afghanistan. It is more evident now
than it has ever been before that those
who continue to predict dire events,
no matter how dead on the money they
may be, must inevitably stoke the frequency
of fear, even when we seek to promote
the higher frequency of love.
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That is why
this Calendar will no longer carry predictions
of natural disaster, war, plague, racial,
social or religious conflict. There
will be little or no mention of sinister
plots and slimy alliances to keep the
collective mind of humanity enslaved
in folly and ignorance. Those who seek
opinion and prognosis about such things
will have a feast of it this year, as
the web is pulsing and panting with
anticipation of agonies far worse than
the ordeal of 9/11/01. The cataract
of doom is rising, and will swell higher
as the anniversary of The Attack approaches.
Many people will swallow newly-crafted
"facts" voraciously, unaware
that the more insatiably they consume
this "information", the more
disempowered they get. Enough is enough.
It is time to hold the space of freedom
consistently.
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For the record,
for the last time here, the awakened
ones know what's going on. Freedom
continues to erode. Entrenched wealth
continues to block compassionate change.
While many human beings continue to
awaken -- and there are far more of
us than even the most optimis- tic know
-- others grow more vain, silly, and
completely addicted to technologies
that entertain them into a perpetual
stupor. Republics and democracies keep
decaying into police states. They
always do. Millennia before the enemies
of Caesar chose their blades, and the
enemies of Jesus pitched their plans,
conspiracies were a fact of history
and of life. They still are. The tragedies
play on and on, and the supply of eager
bad actors seems inexhaustible. It must
stop somewhere. Between now and 2012,
it will. But first we must stop buying
into the fear. From here on, the Universal
Festival Calendar aspires to bring only
the tools for love and courage. Keep
holding that frequency.
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Here are the
daily listings for April, 2002.
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4/2: The
recurring trine (120° angle) between
Saturn in Gemini and Neptune in Aquarius
comes exact in early April, then fades
gradually until it dissolves by 5/5. This
trine has formed on June 25, 2001 and Jan. 23 of this year,
so this third formation is the last,
and culminating one in this cycle, the
exam that tells whether the spiritual
lessons of the last year have been absorbed. A Saturn-Neptune
trine is advantageous for gaining deeper
perception by going within, especially
through extended and disciplined meditative
practices. Good progress is accessible
now in the delicate art of disconnecting
from the dramas of the planet while
staying connected to the love medicine
of Earth's core and the healing force
of awakened community.
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4/12: This New Moon is in many ways the respite from the terribly, violently intense Full Moon of March 28. While the Aries New Moon is normally somewhat unbalanced, and favors the solar energy of the male over the lunar energy of the female, this time around it's very good for spiritual activity in both the inner, private environment and the outer, ceremonial arena. The Sun-Moon conjunction is sextile (at a 60° angle) to Uranus in Aquarius and is also quintile (at a 72° angle) to both Jupiter in Cancer and Neptune in Aquarius. This makes the weekend of April 12 - 13 favorable for parties and entertainments, especially among friends who are spiritually like-minded, but less promising for financial affairs and enterprises unless one is getting investment advice directly from the Lords of Karma themselves.
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4/13: Mars enters Gemini. His position is
favorable until May 27, when he
enters Cancer, where he is "in fall". This time favors the clear and
assertive communication of plans, and
the attainment of objectives by well-chosen
teams whose roles, powers and responsibilities
are well-defined. This is especially
true from the end of the month through
early May, when Mars conjoins Jupiter
in Gemini, provided that turf battles
and ego competition are contained.
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4/18 - 19: The Chiron - Jupiter opposition that occurred in February, and manifested predic- tably in political clashes and money intrigues between governmental and medical authorities on one side and holistic practitioners on the other -- this time with the kava scare and militant ignorance over industrial hemp -- comes again this month, moving into exact opposition on 4/18 - 19, continuing through early May. Chiron also goes retrograde on 4/19, and continues backward through mid-September, so it will seem at times this summer that materialist white coat medicine and its stockholders are inexorably on the advance everywhere, seemingly unstoppable in their determination to undo everything that spiritually-based medicine has done over the last 30 years. The antidotes? Communication. Cohesion. Community, especially on the summer solstice weekend of June 21 - 23.
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Chiron spends the
entire month within
the very narrow band of 9 degrees Capricorn 1 minute to 9 minutes. Capricorn natives born on Dec.
31, and all people with planets on or strongly aspected to the 10th degree of Capricorn,
will be affected. People who are spiritually awakened and tuned to compassion
are likely to feel isolated and unloved
at this time, unless they are able to
find validation by going within, and
by communicating their insights, even
when the impulse to stay in the cave
is nearly irresistible.
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4/25: Venus exits
her powerful placement in Taurus, the
sign she rules, and enters Gemini. While
it is not exactly true that while in
Gemini Venus is more talker than lover
-- spending herself in everything from
the most elegant conversation to the
silliest gossip, depending on who's
playing Venus at the time -- it is true
that words from and to her will be persuasive
now, and she'll be more likely to enter
short, frenetic love unions that are
more mouth than heart. One paradigm
for Venus in Gemini: the dilettante
who talks so much about being an artist
that he or she has little time left
for creating any art.
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4/26 - 27: The
Full Moon in Taurus is relatively uneventful
this time, as the Sun-Moon combination
is aspected only by Neptune in Aquarius,
forming the middle leg of a T-square.
This Full Moon is, in effect, the comic
parody of April's waning Saturn-Neptune
trine (see above), as Neptune afflictions
tend to register as deception of others,
and even more as delusion of oneself.
Spiritual quacks and charlatans find
ample and easy prey at a
time like this, when sincere and kind people tend to be dangerously needy.
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4/29: Mercury enters Gemini, sign of his rulership. Mercury's
return home is uncommonly long this
time, from the end of this month through
July 5, when Mercury enters Cancer.
Any Mercury-in-Gemini period is generally
favorable for matters pertaining to
the Mercury-ruled areas of commerce,
communications and transportation, though
the trend reverses May 16 to June 9,
when Mercury will be retrograde, that
is, apparently moving backward in his
orbit. The Spring push toward mental
and verbal objectives is best done between
now and mid-May, and best done through
clearly-charted milestones, as Mercury's
flair is now so ebullient that his energies
are apt to skip and scatter.
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As April ends,
Saturn in Gemini and Pluto in Sagittarius
are about to move into opposition, forming
the hardest and heaviest alignment of
the Spring, in effect from May 6,
exact at the Full Moon on May 26. Saturn's forward motion this year will carry
him so far through Gemini that when
he goes retrograde from October through
early 2002, his backward movement will
bring him within three degrees of opposing
Pluto again, but not into exact opposition.
In other words, the good news is that
the Saturn-Pluto opposition occurs only
once this time. The less thrilling news
is that once is enough at this time
of strident faith and bloody fanaticism,
since the effect of Saturn-Pluto tension
is a hardening of dogma and ideology
to the point of implac- able arrogance,
even by the standards of the last six
months. Those who are determined to be
right will be so fiercely loud in their
opinions that those who are coming to
doubt the rightness of their positions
will hardly be heard within the orchestra
of self-righteousness that surrounds
them. The din recedes in mid-June. Enjoy
the music of April while you can, because
a month from now the wise will have
to grow very selective in their listening.
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