You Are Who You Are

Dear Friend of Planet Waves,

If you are reading this, chances are you weathered the bizarre 13th sign / your sign is wrong storm from last week with minimal trauma and have settled back into reading your Sun-sign horoscopes. But even if you think you have a handle on the issue, check out the latest edition of Planet Waves by Eric Francis.

In it, Eric not only provides a more thorough follow-up to his initial debunking of the hoax, but takes time to expand the discussion into a reinterpretation. He untangles the threads of the issue from a symbolic as well as scientific perspective, with his esteemed colleagues and mentors Rob Hand and David Arner lending their expertise. Hand and Arner weigh in on the allegedly new constellation Ophiuchus and where it fits in the history of astrology, among other things. This edition also explains how two different zodiac systems evolved (sidereal and tropical), how they are used and their philosophical implications -- including how both influence Eric's own horoscope writing.

This issue is the most thorough, concise and accessible treatment of the two separate branches of the hoax you are likely to find anywhere on the web, and you can check out a sample of it on the Planet Waves blog. Elsewhere on the blog this week, we have featured Eric's satire on the whole hoax, involving the Chinese Year of the Mouse. And in a more somber vein, yesterday Eric commemorated the 50th anniversary of JFK's inauguration with an interpretation of the charts for that event and his birth.

I hope you'll join us at Planet Waves in using astrology as the useful tool for self-understanding and growth that it is, regardless of the disinformation astronomers and uninformed media figures casually promote. And when you have a question about astrology, please -- ask an astrologer.

Yours,

Amanda Painter