Dear Friend and Reader:
 
My original theme for the week was to explore how the economic 'downturn' will help people find their roots. Without so many distractions of success and money to chase and houses to flip, we have a chance to do what's important to us; to scale back the pace of our lives and this obsessive overscheduled busy-ness and recreational spending, and apply our creative and financial resources to what matters.
 

Leonard, a school teacher and minister from a Scandinavian country, is seen here teaching a Holocaust class at Auschwitz II - Birkenau concentration camp in Poland, where more than a million European people are estimated to have died. In a very straightforward way, he is explaining to these students that they are in front of the ruins of gas chamber/crematorium 2, how the process worked and what the implications are. The structure was dynamited as the Nazi officers retreated in 1944. More photos from this series are located here. Photo by Eric Francis.

The current planetary setup reflects a moment of true revelation. The triple conjunction in Aquarius is about an emerging new social pattern as well as we as individuals figuring out how to redefine and expand our personal civilization, and figure out how to merge it with the larger dance of society. I've described earlier how I believe we are opening up a communal psychic field where we can meet and exchange energy, as well as ground ideas into visible reality and explore there as well.
 
Chiron conjunct Neptune is about coming out of both individual and collective denial, clearing the haze and acting on the potential we have now (Jupiter in Aquarius, too). This takes some money, but not as much as poured into the kinds of crap that have been obsessively, incessantly indulged in during the years of the housing bubble. I view the current reshuffling of society as an opportunity to do a lot with very little, and moreover to focus on what we actually need and want to be doing rather than mindlessly running on a cappuccino treadmill.
 
Then, someone showed up at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC on Wednesday and tried to shoot the whole day down. He was stopped by a security officer who did his job and gave his life, apparently preventing yet another episode of mass murder-suicide.
 
This is the third political shooting in the past few weeks, all of them surrounding Mercury stationing direct in Taurus and making a square to the Aquarius triple conjunction. The shootings involved the assassination of an abortion doctor; a shooting at a military recruitment station; and now a purported Holocaust denier opening fire at the Holocaust Museum. This is a pattern. Each of these killings, despite being sold to us as isolated incidents, reflects an agenda and a set of values. Each represents something much larger than itself.

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Coming Up in Daily Astrology and Adventure

Those annoying little hoaxers are back at it, it seems.

Another Martian Mystery. Credit: NASA/JPL/UA

NASA is getting the word out about a hoax e-mail that's been proliferating lately. It claims that anyone looking out the window on August 27 will see a once-in-a-lifetime sight.

"Mars will look as large as the Full Moon,"the e-mail reads. "No one alive today will ever see this again."

Well, truth be told, no one alive today will see it on August 27, either, or any other day.

According to a NASA press release refuting the hoax e-mail, "Only in Photoshop does Mars appear as large as a Full Moon."The myth-busting website Snopes.com seconds this conclusion, noting that it would take a 75x telescope for Mars to look that big to a viewer.

The roots of this hoax appear to dip back to 2003, when Mars actually did come closer to Earth than any time in the past 60,000 years. But even then, NASA points out, to the naked eye it appeared to be little more than a bright, red star.

The only thing as big as the Full Moon in the night sky remains, well, the Full Moon. As noted by NASA, "To see Mars as big as a Full Moon, you'll need a rocketship, and that may take some time."

To which we echo the space administration's own conclusion: Bummer!

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Weekly Horoscope for Friday, June 12, 2009, #770 - BY ERIC FRANCIS

Eric Francis does individual astrological consultations, and will be through November 2009. Eric commits to consultations from year to year, stopping for about three months in November. We keep a list of interested clients. To request a consultation, please write to chelsea@planetwaves.net. Thank you.

Gemini (May 20- June 21)
Over the next few days a series of portals is opening up; this may manifest as a sequence of events, of ideas, of encounters with people and with an overall awakening of an attitude you've never quite felt before. While you're someone who likes to take things at face value -- this is one of your potential downfalls, by the way -- these events will encourage you to look and feel deeper than what is obvious; to embrace the potential contained in something that may or may not be true. In other words, you're being invited into a truly rich state of potential, with no guarantees. This is an ideal situation here on Earth.

Read your 2008 annual for Gemini. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Gemini and Gemini rising here.

Libra (Sep. 22 - Oct. 23)
You are the third side of the triangle: the defining point that shifts a dimension; the stabilizing factor; the focal lens of a process that is grounding something very new in the world. You have the perfect psychic orientation to be in this role. It's the kind of leadership that guides but does not direct; that maintains equilibrium between two very potent forces that have plenty in common but are also distinctly unique. I suggest you lean toward the more active side of your potential role rather than passive. Inject some of your energy into the mix. Focus on what may be the missing element: beauty.

Read your 2008 annual for Libra. Order your Next World Stories 2009 annual for
Libra and Libra rising here.

Aquarius (Jan. 20- Feb. 19)
There is a spirit of freedom in the air over the next week or so, but freedom is strictly something that exists in potential. You can sit around watching television or wondering what to eat; or you can make a series of choices to explore, to expand yourself, and to stretch your thinking at least far enough to get around to the other side of your inner globe. There would seem to be an aspect of who you are that is seeking a voice; that is seeking the opportunity to be heard by you. As the Sun makes a trine to the rare conjunction taking place in your sign, this is a singularly unique time to take personal territory that has eluded you for years or decades.

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