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FIVE, FOUR, THREE, TWO (WAIT A SECOND) ONE…HAPPY NEW YEAR
But the best of all is to let him read no science but to give him a grand general idea that he knows it all and that everything he happens to have picked up in casual talk and reading is "the results of modern investigation." Do remember you are there to fuddle him. From the way some of you young fiends talk, anyone would suppose it was our job to teach! (from The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis)
In the “Screwtape Letters” Uncle Screwtape is kept busy instructing his beloved nephew “Wormwood” in how to confuse, baffle, stupefy, bamboozle and ultimately procure the soul of a young man just trying to live out his life. Wormwood’s task is to lure the young man away from goodness and toward evil. Not evil on a grand scale, but evil in small and petty ways, the slow turning of a soul toward greed, selfishness, fear, mistrust and hatred toward his fellow man, until the time is ripe to do the bidding of Evil on a grand scale all the time thinking one is doing good. Through “Uncle Screw tape’s” letters, slowly one can see how easily their own heart and soul is turned toward a darker expression and adding to the darkness covering the earth.
This is the backdrop of my New Year’s predictions because in 2006 it will be important to remember and hang on to our own goodness and light as Screwtapes and Wormwoods have been unleashed on this earth.
This New Year begins still under the banner of a New Moon (Morgana will be addressing that New Moon) The 2006 chart reminds me of an uncoiling snake trying to decide where to strike and the VOC Moon isn’t helping define a direction for where to strike nor for what the leadership of this country can or will do, least not for a few months.
There is a Retrograde Venus in the 4th house and next to Chiron (it went retrograde on Chiron) We will be forced to identify what we value. Not the kind of retrospective where we “think” we can define our values, but the kind of identifying of values that only comes when having to choose between say food and drug prescriptions, that kind of identifying. The kind of identity Solomon forced upon two women who claimed a child as their own and he threatened to split the child in two, but the real mother said no “let her have my child,” and Solomon returned the child to his rightful mother, the one who wanted his life saved. Many of us in this country and around the world will have to deeply get in touch with what they value and at the same time be careful of the whispered justifications our own inner Wormwood will be happy to provide.
Retrograde Venus at the first of the year also says there are things left undone from 2005 and will have to be resolved or revisited. Corrupt politicians come to my mind as needing to be revisited.
When people look toward a psychic or Astrologer and ask “what is going to happen?” What they are really asking is “what will happen to me?” Something happens in the world in fact several something’s every single day of the year. Someplace disaster is striking everyday economic, wars, environmental, health, something and we need to think about the rest of the world and their plight. But, we want to know if there will be something that will affect “us” this year and that’s an easy answer. YES!!!
All over the world, including the US there will be frustrated action, especially for our leaders. Saturn is in the 11th House of groups, (like Congress) not much there and not much respect from the people for what isn’t there, a tough election year for Congress Saturn is retrograde at 9 Leo, and will Retrograde all the way back to 4 Leo before moving forward again and squaring the January 1st Mars at 11 Taurus. One of the most immediate problems will be the fixed T-square between Jupiter, Mars and Neptune in mid-January. For this country, or any country could herald earthquakes and mud-slides. California, with all their rain and storms stacked all the way back to Japan seems to be a likely place for mud slides on a grand scale, as far as an earthquake in this country the New Madrid fault line in the Mississippi River is also at risk.
Without detailing each and every one of the aspects for 2006 let me list my predictions after you read them you will think I am a Moonbat for what I am about to say: It’s all good. Everything that happens this year will lead us to a greater understanding of our place in the human race and to a higher consciousness. With any little bit of luck, we will break through fear and anxiety over what might happen.
1. A frustrating year for action
2. More violence and plain mean spiritedness of our leaders
3. No Avian flu this year but a severe flu season in February and March
4. George Bush gets off this year on the illegal “wire-tapping” of the American People and we sink further into the murky waters of fascism, people still in la, la, land. Whenever anyone says “well, if you’re not doing anything wrong who cares if they are listening in,” remind them that they won’t be the ones determining if they are doing something wrong, the government will be the ones deciding. Saturn sitting on GWB’s Ascendant and Mercury doesn’t promise a good year for him but no impeachment.
5. A physical crisis leading to a greater spiritual awakening
6. A scandal, a big scandal regarding the media, it’s already started with the NY Times and the Washington Post and the Justice Dept. investigation over the leaks to those papers. It was pointed out on Hardball how funny it was that after of year of the WH knowing about these leaks they are just now investigating. Hmmmm, maybe a set up with the complicity of the Times and Post and it will back fire on them.
7. False arrests and imprisonment of American citizens, with the rest of Americans oblivious.
8. If the bottom doesn’t fall out of the economy and the housing bubble in 2006, it will in the very beginning of 2007 but the US will be broke by the end of 2006, heck we are broke now.
9. Begin thinking of what you can barter or how to barter for goods and services
10. Increased foreign tourists. With the massive falling dollar against the Euro, we have become the “new Mexico” a cheap vacation, some bright people will be able to figure out how to capitalize on those foreign tourists.
11. Karl Rove indicted
12. Abramoff scandal widens and ensnares more Senators and Congressmen than thought plus selected aides of said Senators and Congressmen, there could also be some Governors involved. Bill Richardson of New Mexico might be one of them. The Abramoff scandals are a mass of corruption and mostly for the GOP, if Richardson is involved he would be one of the few Democrats.
13. Shocking disclosures involving pharmaceutical companies, Merck's head is on the line for this one but more will soon be named. (Uranus in the 6th ready to square US Uranus is pharmaceutical, illness and military.)
14. Stunning revelations about the Bush family and they gain traction with the public (Uranus opposing George Bush Mars and the progressed Suns and Moons of the male line of Bush back to Obadiah born in 1797 a danger of the destruction of their entire legacy) and/or serious health problems this year. I am counting on the loss of legacy.
15. Money going out of the US like water through war and a continued fall of the dollar and we are being lied to about the economy, big time.
16. War with Syria and/or Iran with Iraq joining Iran and Iran receiving help from China and Russia (that’s already happening) The draft will come up again.
17. The fixed T-square between Mars/Jupiter/ Neptune says the office of “presidency” is in trouble and losing value and credibility fast. Three more years of this group and the presidency will be destroyed as we know it today.
18. Martial Law somewhere in the US this year slowly spreading across the country if not stopped by the people.
19. Hillary Clinton may win her Senate seat but there is something coming to damage her reputation badly and that could be before the elections.
20. Liberman will lose in Connecticut but will be given a post in the Bush administration.
21. Jupiter is in a trine to the US Sun and GWB Sun the first of January giving us all a breather for just a bit. I don’t see things beginning to really heat up again until closer to the mid-January date. Neptune is in a trine to GWB’s Moon another indicator of a breather for him until Neptune moves off the 15 degree Aquarius.
22. Neptune trine the US Saturn in the 10th providing a “New Year” cover for corrupt Congressmen, it won’t last however, in fact the cover is almost gone now.
23. Delay is done, as is Bill Frist, they are no longer good news for the GOP
24. This is the year for new faces in the election and perhaps new parties gaining more ground again, depends on the voting machines and Diabold isn't the only corrupt voting company, so don't get fooled by their crash from grace.
25. The religious right, while still an influence began to lose their grip, thanks to the involvement of Ralph Reed with Abramoff.
The North Node is at 8 degrees Aries in the beginning of the year on the 7th house cusp, indicating an important year. The ruler Mars, is involved in the fixed T-square, someone is itching for war with the United States and we are itching to give it, all over oil (Neptune’s involvement) As I said, Russia and China are involved.
It will be a few years yet before the US realizes that all the money in the Federal Reserve has been stolen, however, the astute in the country already know.
The drum roll for the Bush Administration's complete agenda began at the first Inauguration in 2001 and this year will bring them unexpected challenges to that agenda, so much so they might find all their plans washing down the drain. What they "projected" outward will now be projected toward them and the inner anger and frustration of the people in the US will break out by January/February 2007.
Nothing, absolutely nothing is as it seems. We need to stay alert, but mostly centered and if you don’t know your neighbors or those in your community make it a priority to try and connect with some of the people around you.
My final “prediction” is based on a little bit of insider information; look for the Screwtape Letters to be made into a movie within the next 18 months. The people making the movie will be looking for a theme of “good vs. evil” with the intent that people would see Satan is close at hand. Oh the people will see that all right but the producers will mistake who the people identify as a “Satan.” It will be released just as masses are beginning to awaken to what is going on in this country. MMMMMMM more popcorn please.
Sally Cheyne McDonald on Dec 31 |
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Very interesting, Sally. Sounds like economic crash -- at least within the US -- is just around the bend. Farming and Farmers Markets may be coming back en vogue quite soon.
Wonder what the Bushes' dark secret is? Murder? Molestation? Satan Worship? British Crown double-agents? Whatever it is, that family of pretenders, charlatans and thieves is due for a major dose of ego deflation.
Lieberman teaming up with Bush shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. He's a DINO if there ever was one. Too bad about Gov. Richardson, though. It'll be a real shame to see him get caught up in and brought down by the DeLay-Abramoff mess. But hey, when you lie down with dogs...
Hillary isn't at all what she appears to be. Something doesn't seem right to me about her. I've felt that way about her ever since she moved to NY to run for the Senate seat there. Even Bill doesn't seem much like the Clinton we knew in better times. Perhaps he never was?
I hope Condi Rice doesn't get some sort of a by in all of this. Seems like some in the establishment want to position her as a possible presidential contender. But its' hard to see her candidacy going over too well with the GOP's backwards, Jim Crow-era-minded base.
I don't care if the Office of the Presidency comes to an end, so long as we don't end up with a Dictatorship in its' place, and something far better emerges. I still say the role should be divided into Head of State and Head of Government roles. Let the Head of Congress/Parliament be the Head of Government, where power and authority are best determined by the multitude. If we still need a Presidency, as Head of State, whatever person fills that role can simply be the chief diplomat to the world with no power whatsoever to press the Red Button.
Vice Presidency? Who needs it?
Wow, very sobering article Cap'n Sally! Thanks for the timely info for the dawn of the new year.
For everyone's reading, here's a post that tells why the waretapping by Dubya is political and "like father, like son" :
http://villagevoice.com/news/0601,mondo1,71442,6.html
namaste and happy new year to all....
You know something NEO, you are not the first person I've heard make that observation about the Clinton's in the last year and I agree, there is something that just doesn't seem right about Hillary or even Bill. I don't know how far they will go or if anyone serves jail time or pays for their bad deeds in any manner, but the scandals will rock the country and the country just continues to accept more and more "evil" if you will and care less and less about values, morals etc. That's why it will be important for everyone who can to stay in their own light filled place. The "well he/she did it too" mentality is going to take over in this country. The immaturity of behavior is simply stunning.
Oh boy! Everytime i visit and see a new Sally post, i get a chill -- a thrill actually! And, Captain, oh Captain. . .this is superb. Your clever title -- including the additional one second being added to the year -- was perfect. On an intuitive level, i know there is something symbolic about that one second. But what? It will have to sit with me awhile.
I wonder if the revelations about the Bush family are somehow tied to the latest petition to return Geronimo's skull to its rightful place.
Every one of your predictions "feel" right on target to me. Perhaps it's a logical projection of the plans and manipulations already in enacted. This too, i know. The irrevocable changes this country (the world, the Earth) will experience are necessary. If, in fact, we are to follow the course of evolution, the change will herald a new way of being, perhaps seeing, perhaps actual physical adaptation changes. And, aren't those changes always preceded by necessity?
Thank YOU, Sally! Great read this morning!
karen
I think I know what the scandal around them might be but I won't put it into print, we will just wait. Cheney has a very difficult spring, I don't want to say "he won't make it," but I will say he will be struggling through early summer. I'm not sure he isn't a clone now. This retrograde Venus in his 6th house is going to produce some kind of health crisis for him over the next three months.
Everyone look to where Venus went retrograde in your charts, what houses etc. that's the quadrant you are likely to undergo change.
Once again Sally, you take my breath away with the depth of your predictions. The one I mainly focused on is the undoing of the B*** family. For with their decline an entire structure of "Screwtape" influence will crumble. It's not just George and his immediate family. Also, glad to see the grip of the fundies loosening, it had to happen given that their moral majority has a foundation built on sand. Can't help but hope that the downfall of Reed is glorious in his undoing, as great as his hypocrisy has been. Let that be an object lesson to them for where they've put their faith. They would have us all led by sanctimonious, mealy mouthed crooks and liars. Good way to begin the year. Thank you Sally.
Add your own predictions over the next few days and we will post them on the front page. They will eventually be in the archives and we will check on them as the year goes on. I also think "water" will soon be the big thing and go way up in price. The other thing I wonder is if some enterprising person will make a scrambler or something like it to thwart the ability to listen to another's phone conversation.
Breathtaking! Just breathtaking, Cap'n Sally. Gotta catch my breath and then try and absorb all this. One thing right off the bat, though. I'm glad to see you omitted Latin America. What's going on there, the trend toward having governments for the people (rather than to rob from the people) gives me hope for the longer-term--that such a trend will catch hold and spread. So, I am relieved that you didn't mention Latin America, for I cannot figure out for the life of me why it's being so ignored (thank heavens!). The US has stomped around all over those countries for far too long and I keep waiting for Smirky&Co to cast their war-eyes south. I guess they're just too busy trying to create Armageddon in the ME right now.
Yessum, breathtaking! Bravissimo!
Thanks Shy, I didn't mention Latin America because not all the countries are safe there and many are supporting this government (US. Sadly, it won't take long for the graft and corruption to start with these new governments, if it hasn't already. They will be defined as Communists and dangerous and they will have to eventually work with the world's governments. I suspect they will lean toward Russia and China like Cuba did, Castro is still the hero in those parts of the world and Cuba is a dictatorship. By the time we get to a place in this world that offers peace, we will take any form of government that's offered. We as a people are wearing down. All over the world the people are tired of fighting, tired of starving, tired of poverty and sickness and most of all tired of fighting their own governments. The only way to avoid reeling from one level of corruption to another is a change in consciousness and recognition that what we do to one we do to all then we will have a more humane government and a more level playing field. I do see a shift ahead (a few years ahead) but getting there is over rough terrain.
I was watching Gwen Ifil (sp?) last night on PBS and her panel. One of the panel members said "one thing neither party is paying attention to is the over 60 group and they vote in record numbers and make up 25 to 30 percent of the voting block in this country. I wonder if that over 60 group would mobilize, say with the Grannie Group, if we couldn't make a difference. They also said that group voted overwhelmingly for Kerry. How about that!!!
The North Node is at 8 degrees Aries in the beginning of the year on the 7th house cusp, indicating an important year.
Sally....my mars is 8 Aries...hopefully I will have a good year, as right now I have no work and had to take early retirement to pay the rent....
I just keep seeing chickens coming home to roost. I remember when )MLK and JFK died, I kept hearing 'chickens coming home to roost" from older guys (1963) and wondering what it meant. As for the Screwtape Letters....last night I was watching the DVD of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith....seems as if G. Lucas read CS Lewis also....as the entire story arch is on the lessons of the descent into the 'dark side of the force'.
I welcome the refreshing air which comes with exposure of the nefariousness of our present era.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/12/31/DDG5CGERRD1.DTL
Every year the gloomy Charon
(Boatman on the River Styx)
Gives a party on his ferry:
New Year's Eve for fun and kicks.
His only guest is Cerberus.
He comes for the Chex Party Mix
Which he eats from three big bowls.
And as he does, his host predicts
Who'll be first, come twelve o'clock
To get in line to cross the Styx.
"Mark my word," he tells the dog,
"Come the year two oh oh six,
Not one soul will come by bus.
They'll all slide in on oil slicks."
Doggie cocks his heads, and pricks
Up his doggy ears -- all six.
Says his host: "I'm not expecting
Any Harrys, Toms or Ricks,
But what I do expect are Dicks.
(more...!)
---------
This is a great verse on whose comeuppance is due this year....! enjoy....
Judi, your NN is in the 6th house trined by Pluto from the 10th, that should be a new job or new work, but not until something activates the 8 degrees like Venus or the Sun, so look for something come spring when the Sun hits 8 degrees Aries, or after the 1st of the year when Saturn activates that Pluto again. Power for you with Saturn on Pluto in the 10th, try expanding what you think you can do, into what is possible to do.
hey Sally --
Do you do full blown yearly transit readings? If so, where can I get info. If not, can you recommend as astrologer/site who does?
Just curious. If you don't feel it's appropriate to comment about commercial astrology on this thread, I understand. Happy New Year.
Hello - I've been following this site for about a year. Very, very good information presented. This latest article rings all together too true. Guess, as always, reinforces what a psychologist friend told me 20 some odd years ago: "humans only tend to learn through extreme pain . . . " F.Y.I. for astrology buffs: I'm Libra sun, Libra moon, Scorpio Rising w/mars & mercury conjunct ASC in Scorpio. Keep up the good work!!
Sally...thanks for the look see....what has happened since last June is: out of chapter 13 which took 10 years (I 'fell thru the cracks" my lawyer said)...had to retire early because of no work....my art rep had major surgery, so she will take a long time to recover and that will change what she is doing...I went back to school ...taking silk screening and I am reviving drawing skills in an open studio setting (classic portraiture)...and I really like ALL of this. Just like you said, these are hard things going on for 2006, but good in the long run...which seems to be what has happened for me in 2005. Hmmmm...as above, so below.
Dederkl, funny synchronicity...I thought you might be my old friend LCC, with whom I just reconnected....who just resent his birthdata...also Libra Sun, Libra Moon and possibly Scorpio risiing...I have to check out when PDT went to PST in 1950.)
This is a dang good site.....
I forgot to mention LCC is an astrologer....
Sally...as for specific predictions...we may just have to keep them coming. My sense is that Saturn opposing Neptune is the source of my 'chickens come home to roost' feeling. The mists are penetrated by a hard driving cannonball....a time of change not gradual, but shocking.
My Predictions For 2006
I agree Karl Rove will be Indicted, and the door is open for others too.
John Bolton will fall as far as possible into disgrace, a long over due kick in the A double S.
Dick Cheney is gone this year, one way or the other
The AIPAC spy trial and investigation will come to the forefront and be shocking to most Americans, making them furious.
The Abramoff scandal will explode. Not only members of congress and their aides be caught in its web, but so called moral leaders as well, it won’t be just Reed.
The country will begin really roiling with anger around Sept. about money. It will be a culmination of heating bills, gas prices, money spent in Iraq, the costs of medication and skyrocketing interests rates for credit cards,( the usury of the cc companies now being plain to see.)
Secrets, secrets, secrets coming out. Just how far the secret government set up by Cheney has usurped our democracy. He will be the fall guy for much that went wrong. At least they will try to pass the buck to him.
What I am mostly feeling, and have for some time, is something of a cataclysmic nature coming. Don’t know what but it will cause, to quote Claudia Dikinis, the great unraveling, a loathing that will protect us from this happening again. I think of the vodiennes in New Orleans humming, their soft call for justice and their disdain for the man who claimed what he thinks is a crown and surrounded himself with sycophants and evil chancellors. There is a light coming and it is not the rupture of a rapture, but a soft, gentle beam that doesn’t need a booming voice to proclaim its power. It will wrap itself around us and we will feel the blessing as if in a dream. But that will be the waking, the true reality and an end to the nightmare. Don’t know when it will come, perhaps after more than enough voices are raised in prayer. But come it will and make its presence known in ways we would never expected. So look for the signs, as they are even now appearing. They are the little dots that give us hope and cause us to know that despite everything, all will be right.
Found this at Booman Trib... sharing, and wishing each and every one your greatest and highest good in 2006, and beyond.
-------------
Across the Universe
by fauxreal
Fri Dec 30th, 2005 at 12:47:41 PM EST
My New Year's (and one and only booman trib diary) Post I would like to propose that everyone reading this blog, and all other bloggers and readers across the world, and everyone they know take this mentally constructed calendar moment to be both the observer and the actor in reinventing reality.
So, whatever your time zone, at some moment in this day, let your mind visualize the demise of fundamentalism across the world...from this moment on. See that Bush and bin Laden's followers are illusions of hatred and fear. Let the fear be displaced by goodness and caring for all beings on this earth and beyond, for the living trees and the living microbes and the molecules and atoms and the vast nothingnesses that pass between all things and unite us.
For one moment, at least, believe that you can make the world change by replacing hate with love. Let reality be the consciousness that it is, and not the time/space prison of linear narrative.
Let the dream within a dream be a dream and not a nightmare by transforming the universe with a butterfly wing of a thought that we have other worlds we can bring forth in this one.
peace.
pass it on.
Ouida Mae, levitating in meditative posture right above the lotus blooms there on the Japanese pond, is predicting that I will get out from under the bed more often this coming year. That, obviously, is a most positive indication for the New Year. Onward freedom's soldiers! Let's takeback our country!
You've really gone out on a limb, M. Thanks for posting your predictions.
I wonder if those secrets being revealed involved the stealing of the 2004 election. Maybe someone involved in Ohio will talk?
I'm glad your bed isn't afloat tonight Shylurker.
Can't come up with any predictions for the coming year tonight, although I am not feeling any bad coming. On the other hand, I'm just beginning to feel my body again. ( Didn't know it was MIA)
With venus retrograding through my 8th, I think my intuitive abilities will be healed.
Love, empowerment, and light to all of you...
Happy New Year!
PQ
And thanks for caring and carrying me through this terrible last year!
PQ
Pat QOP, your intuitive abilities, I suspect, are the healers. And I also suspect they are vast. Welcome to the New Year, dear heart, spread your wings and guide us forward.
Mark - There are so many secrets, we could have one a day for the next year and we'd still need 2007. Limb? Yes indeedy, all caution is thrown to the wind this year, I'm jumping in. Nothing to lose. Happy New Year to you and all on AW.
Happy New Year 2006!
Here's a toast of my bubbly to AW and All Our Relations for Blessings, Peace, and Love to reign.
Thanks everyone for your birthday wishes.
Last night I went with a student to an important temple here to hear the mid-night bell ring and see the fire works.The weather has been warmer lately and I was able to walk acoss the bridge and stand around on the street for two hours. They say you get your wish if you can hear the bell which rings 108 times. We had to get near to the temple to hear the bell.I heard the bell a few times before the fire works went off. There was no thought of going inside as the price for a ticket was very high. The crowd outside stood very quitely and waited for it to begin and for it to be over. There was very little talking and no real noise which is strange for China.
I was very grumpy and not nice which I regret. I have had this problem of grumpiness for more than a year now. I thought there was some sort of improvement in my ability to deal with the Chiron and Venus thing but it did not last.I appear to have lost in the goodness of the universe and in people I come in contact with. I know it had begun when I lived in Austin near the Bush conspiracy and grew to an immense size when the eletion was stolen in 2000. It expanded greatly when I was with my elderly mother and my sisters while I was in Oklahoma and was topped off this time last year by my daughter's getting mad when I would not obey her in settleing family affairs. My grumpiness has gotten way out of hand and I have been shocked by it myself and so have lots of other people.(haha)I hope that in the new year I can get rid of this negative grumpiness which I have been dragging around the world for a year.
I am grateful that my "tapeworms" were really indigestible and possibly poisonous mushrooms or a severe allergy to mushrooms. I know of 5 Western people here who have been hospitalized by a similiar illnesses and one was diagnosed as posionous mushrooms, one as allergy to penicillan in the water where shrimp are raised but I managed to survive and not go to the hospital to stay just to get lab tests. The mushrooms look like arrows and they stay in the digestive system for a long time (like a month) and make people miserable. This is Pluto in Sag.!
I wanted to blame bush but this time it was probaby not his fault.
The party has just releaved the farmers of the national tax which they have paid for 2,600 years.China has always taxed the poorest for the happiness of the wealthiest and has been decreasing the most incredible regressive tax ever invented for about twenty years now and next year it will finally completely end at the national level. I think this may be the major achievement of this society. It may be a while before it shows positive results for the country but it is a bigger step forward in the long run than tall buildings, ancient shrines, space ventures and sports palaces.
I wish Bush could read, I would send him an email about this.
New China, Oct.1, 1949 is definetly a Libra country. Relationships are important.However, many people expect you to develop an instant relationship at introduction or before and have instant intimacy and instant rapport which can be almost impossible and not always a good idea. I am much less trusting of people who want to be friends but will not tell you their name. I see a need to make some changes in the way I relate to people here since this time last year. I have been more defensive than necessary in some instances. With Venus returning to my first house, I may get it right this time.
Suzhou is an ancient city of white houses with black tile roofs and lots of gardens. It is human sized but the tall buildings and overpasses rise daily. So far Suzhou has maintained a balance of the old and the new. This is a city where silk and embrodiary were popular and it is supposed to have the most beautiful girls in China so the old imperial courts used to order the imperial concubines from here every year, I have been told. It was also famous as a place where old poets and scholars could come to retire and sit in gardens.It is a very conservative area in China. My Chinese friends, both doctors, are moving away from here for their teenage daughter to acquire a more liberal attitude to life in a global society.
There are several industrial areas in all parts of the city and many foreign companies are here. Many foreigners of all nationalities live here. There are several international schools and churches and 4 international supermarkets lots of international restaurants but the overall feel of the place is conservative and ancient. For every day life it is a pleasant place to be, not quite comfortable but more comfortable than many other places and near to Shanghai.
Because we are South of the Yellow River,we get no heat in school and pay a fortune for heat in our apartments. Many of the newer schools are adding heat to classrooms and dormitories where students live but not my university and not the most conserative lower schools. Some people really believe that freezing to death develops character and prevents colds and they can not wait to inflict this healthy punishment on babies and foreigners. Many people HAVE HEARD that viruses cause colds but they do not believe it. Few know that the only place where it gets cold enough to kill COLD viruses is Antartica.
Opps taking up too much space. Happy New Year! Bjt
May all living beings be free of pain and suffering.
May all living beings have happy and peaceful lives.
Happy New Year Everyone
New York! There are great cities around the world, beautiful and romantic cities; but there isn't anywhere on earth that can compare to the city of New York. It's exciting and messy and an incredible microism of the world and the world waits for the ball to drop in New York. I'm not sure it's the United States people around the world watch, I think it might be New York.
It is but a few minutes before the New Year Ball drops bringing us to 2006. Happy New Year Astroworld, and many many blessings to you all.
Sally Cheyne McDonald
Your writing is an incredibly wonderful writing, Betsy! And, since 2000, have turned into "Old Curmugeon" meself. Namaste, my Seesta. Mebbe 2006 will see an improvement in our dispositions. ;O)
Have heart grouchy Seestas, I have been really AWFUL.........this past year. People cross the street to avoid me! ( almost) I call it PTSS.
But it started to change the night of the full moon shining on the ice, out back.
Then with my daughter's gift of the white fur trimmed snow boots, my attitude began to change. ( She's very intuitive!)
My attitude last week at the library changed and I cast off the "victim" mentality. I clearly stated my intention to close my doors and write & illustrate 2 children's books this coming year. Our local published Author celeb., began the negative spiel.......do you have a publisher"liner up", not much money i n the field.....etc. I was able to state firmly that it was what I had always wanted to do. Since childhood my heros were illustrators, and that's what I intended to do!
Feels GOOD!
My tomato plants in the kitchen window are putting out new blossoms, ( it's 13o outside today!) and if I water the rainbow chard in the bedroom it will keep on producing....and I will have a wood stove to keep warm!
Your description of China is fascinating Betsy, keep telling us more please.......I get CC TV, and they did an article on people who are defying globalisation, by continueing to embroider for the love of it, even tho they don't make pots of money doing it. I think it may have been in Suzhou.
PQ
I love all the comments here. You guys are such top quality people. Everyone's writing seems to have a poiniency (sp?) lately. These glimpes of China ARE fascinating, please keep it up Betsy, and, yes, you are right Joanna, Betsey does write beautifully. Sally, your description of New York is right on - I was thinking the same myself as I drunk in the atmosphere down in the New Orleans French Quarter. It was wonderful, pretty normal if you didn't allow your mind to wander from the present, and I loved watching Arlo Guthrie singing about "the train they call they City of New Orleans" in Jackson Square. My overriding thought, though, was that there is no place more exciting on New Years or any day than NYC. It just vibrates.
I'm excited for Judi and Pat QP about your plans to create art this year. I loved picturing you receiving white fur trimmed books, QP - what a GREAT image, it says so much, because we all know what you went through this year, and for you to receive something so beautiful and frivilous (sp?) was just what you needed! Right out of an O. Henry story. Would make a beautiful movie scene.
Anyway, methinks grumpiness is a part of life and a valid reaction to things. It takes gentle discipline to see the beauty and good, and overcome physical and emotional pain and sometimes, it also takes healing time. We had a talk last night about seeing the glass half empty or full. I brought up that if you always see it as half-full (or maybe completely full is really what we should envision - on Shabbat we fill the wine cup on which the blessing is said to overflowing for that reason), and gloss over the rest, you may never identify things that need fixing, healing, addressing. But, I can definitely use an attitude adjustment and a more joyful outlook a lot of the time, that's for sure.
I really appreciate ALL of you. Let's keep up this flow and all create, like Judi and PQ, what we love this year.
Abundant, overflowing Blessings to ALL of you,
Sharon
I also meant to say that I appreciate your outlook, QP, and I have all along. You see the good, the beautiful, the positive so clearly and I'm sure that lifts you way up. I love that about you.
...and, Sally, your Screwtape image is SO relevant - I am not surprised a movie will be put out there with this message. There are all levels of "evil," and some are so subtle. I know I have had incidents in my life where I convinced myself I was doing the right thing, and, in retrospect, I can say that it was over the border into the darker side. Self-delusion and self-righteousness are dangerous states of mind.
Namaste -
Happy New Year AW!
We're up on generator and my dialup line. Here in the Santa Cruz Mountains our power has been out 23 hours and counting.
This is going to be a very busy year for we the people if we really want to see change in 2006.
btw nifty grand sextile on the last new moon, rare that. Lots of energy in motion.
Morgana, I admire your resourcefulness. May the Light be with you --- and may your electricity restored. I have been there and it is very doable.
Love,
Sharon
Interesting predictions Sally. It goes right along with what I have been thinking for a while. Last night I did a Tarot reading and some numerology and came up with this.
It looks like everything the gubment wanted to accomplish has been fulfilled. Even though the disasters, leaks and general frustrations have been increasing, the wheel has been set in motion and we will have to ride it out. More secrets will be revealed in the coming year which will only cause more problems for both our Government and the country. For now, the criminals are being exposed and they are being slowed down against their will. But, they have placed all of their goons in positions to their advantage so not much will come from their crimes (no jail time). Bush will be around for another 3 years, but Delay is out, Cheney will resign and soon expire, and Frist may end up in more trouble then he could ever imagined. The Abramoff scandel will bring down the government as we know it. The 2008 elections will be a complete joke.
This years card for the USA is the Wheel of Fortune. The Wheel card has everything to do with Karma, both good and bad. I'm thinking that sometime in late spring or early summer we'll start feeling the effects of our gubments actions. As a result of the lies leading up to the war, torture and our governments refusal to work with the global community, we are going to be cut off and ignored. Sanctions against the USA and reduced economic support are very possible. This could lead to the housing bubble bursting, higher credit card rates and payments, and all around chaos in this country. Which would bring about Martial Law in the major cities due to the crime increases. They smaller towns and rural areas will not be that much of a concern for now.
The Wheel's number is 10. So I also look at the Fool and The Magician. The fool brings us to the edge of a cliff that we will blindy walk off of if something does not pull us back. Just as the rats followed the Pied Piper to their deaths, our country seems posed to do the same. No one is pulling us back from the edge. Because the Fool is at the beginning we are wide open for a different and new way of doing things. We can continue to fall into Facism or we can find a safer way around this cliff.
The Magician says we can create what we would like to happen though communication. Isn't the internet a great tool! We can't do it alone, but together we may be able to keep this sinking ship afloat a little longer. We as a whole need to become just as vocal and mean as the right wing nuts, but instead of spreading lies we spread truths. After all, we are not out to take over the world to dictate, we are ready to take over the world for peace and fairness to all.
Peace
Rather ominous predictions posted over at dailykos about Dean and the Dems. Several observers/pundits/analysts are saying Dean will not be Chair of the party much longer. If he leaves to pursue other things, that's his prerogative and it'll be interesting to see what he does. If the DLC wins, however, and forces him out--oh, do say it ain't so, somebody, for the implications of that are enormous!
Then Dean could run for President yes ?
The best of the New Year to you Sally and your family.
Peace, good health, and prosperity to all who come here.
Morgana, it's good to hear from you. I've been thinking of you and hoping you are doing well in your mountains.
Namaste
A British view...
Horoscope 2006
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Vital signs
A bad year for bird flu, oil and the royals. But how will it be for you? Neil Spencer looks ahead
Neil Spencer
Sunday January 1, 2006
Observer
For financial and political astrologers, it is the long cycles of the outer planets that provide the best clues about future events. Given the world's problems, there is not, alas, much comfort to be taken from the clash of Neptune and Saturn in 2006, an opposition that arrives every 36 years.The symbolism fits both an oil shortage (Neptune representing oil, Saturn a dearth) and an outbreak of bird flu (Neptune being diffusion, Saturn a pestilence).
Elsewhere in the zodiac, oceanic symbolism remains to the fore. The combination of Jupiter and Uranus in the 'water' signs of Pisces and Scorpio spells continuing concern over the world's seas and water supplies. Leo, where chilly Saturn spends the year, is the sign of royalty, and is fittingly prominent in the stars of the British monarchy.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5364035-110648,00.html
Just a funny little aside to all this...my daughter's best friend had her little boy last night...by C section, as he just wasn't making his journey as he was supposed to do, and Colleen is 36 and was getting tired, and his little heart was beating to fast....but he is the only person I've known born on the last day of the year (8:48 PM)...but mother and child are doing fine
Morgana....hey, no electicity back yet? it has been a mess....my daughter and family went up Sat afternoon to Sonoma....most of the roads were flooded, but the sun was shining and their friends gave them directions to the back roads. On the way back today, same thing...flooded roads...here in San Bruno we had high winds....I thought it was over, and started baking bread in the bread machine....and the electricity went out 4 or 5 times, completely negating the machine timing. I have a loaf of bread that could be used as a door stopper now. I think Marin county is till out of power in places, too....this apparently was as bad as 1986 flooding...
Betsey...you made me laugh......can't blame Bush this time! very good. And hey....grumpiness is not all bad. But you might want to think about some nice soymilk....sometimes I think the grumpiness comes from the hormones playing tricks on us. A little soy helps Venus along.
I had a real ZING a few minutes ago...I mean, a HUGE one. It is a little like finding a missing ancestor....I found the missing piece of my political profile...how I most likely became what I have become (a liberal)....and it came from a book called Honor Killing by David E. Stannard. He is writing about the Massie Affair, which trial transformed Hawai'i f(where I was born during WWII) from a fascist and racist slavery society, where minorities were SEVERLY downtrodden, to a liberal and open society....and it started because of this story of the lunching of a native Hawaiian man and a huge trial...white vs. dark. Hearst carried it on the front pages across the world...George Patton testified along with Dillingham (the most powerful man in Hawai"i) that the natives were born to be slaves and the white man wasn't....and Clarence Darrow made his one big mistake in life at the end of his career and took on the wrong side of the affair. And I grew up with the results....a fascist, racist society transformed. Wow...and all I have read is the foreward.
Heya Judi, nope no power, gas station is out of gas as well. Since we have no power in the poles cable is down so just now catching up with the news before we switch the fridge back to the generator.
Morgana...yikes. it is still pouring outside, but the wind has died down here. I hear the storms are backed up to Japan.
Can you get out to get food? J
Hey Judi we're in good shape food wise. Power came on a little while ago, for how long who knows. We're about 3 miles from town but have a little mom and pop store not far from the house which carries everything at a jacked up price, including propane. We keep emergency supplies on hand, the epicenter of the Loma Prieta quake is about 5 miles as the crow flies from our house and we're in the San Andreas fault zone zillions of little faults so always prepared for that occurance.
Really interesting predictions from every where. Pass the popcorn!
Hi, happy new year from another dedicated lurker. I think the neptune-saturn opp is going to be big.In 1989, when the wall fell and monolithic communism dissolved almost over night, I wasn't as involved with astrology as I am now, but even amist the joy of the time I had a sinking feeling realizing that it wasn't over yet. The US and USSR were mutual pillars in a structure that was accepted for years as "realpolitik". Somehow they balanced or maybe neutralized each other's energies. When the wall fell first it was automatically (and somewhat smugly)assumed that it happened because the 'western capitalists' had done something right economically (and morally, don't forget Ronnie Raygun and his evil empire bit). That concluded, everyone patted themselves on the back and walked away not acknologing the other over grown colossus still standing now longer had the infrastructure to support itself. Unchecked it has grown bloated, unopposed it has quickly become an outrageous parody of itself. And now, to balance itself it has to begin to take on the attributes of it's 'opposite' that no longer exists. I suspected then that collapse was a matter of time and as the conjuction of saturn and neptune appear to be connected to the fall of one, perhaps this first opposition might show the weakness of the other.
Your predictions are right on and I echo your hopeful sentiments that these events will bring about positive change. May humanity continue to awaken. Here, in case you haven't seen it is a paper about the fourth night of the mayan calendar and what it predicts for us.
http://www.mayanmajix.com/The_Beginning_of_%20the_Fourth.pdf
Take care all, Junofeb
JUNOFEB welcome to Astroworld and what a gift you have brought. This is a fantastic article in its wisdom and insight and prophetic visions. Thank you so much. Do you mind if I put it on the "prediction article page?"
Shylurker I haven't found the reference you mentioned re: Dean and the DLC and Dean's swan swong. Gotta say wow, where goes Dean goes a bunch of folks, me included. I also like the idea of Dr. Dean being free to run for the Presidency as I see Kerry gearing up to make another shot at it (ick spineless wimp crawled in a hole and if he was cowed into it, fine we don't want no cows).
Anyway dropped Jim Dean at Democracy for America a quick note through the contact us button and said as much to them. I'm all for a new Liberal Party without the Lieberman Lite crowd.
Our power has been on then off then on again. Rain rain go away come again some other day. Geeze...where's the ark?