Metaphysically Speaking

For astrologers and students in Los Angeles the eclipse of the century starts at 7:34 PM July 21 2001 and will last over 6 minutes. It occurs at 29 degrees of Cancer.  While the this eclipse is visible in India, China, parts of Indonesia and Japan, do not doubt its power, for we all will feel some impact,  especially if it hits key parts of your chart. The next eclipse of this size and this impact at equinox levels will not be seen until 2114 over a century from now. So it is an event of historical importance!
The last eclipse of anywhere near this power was in 1973 which saw the firing of Spiro Agnew as Vice President and the appointment of Jerald Ford as VP.  1973 was also the year that President Nixon’s tapes of conversations in the White House signaled the fall of his presidency because of the Water Gate scandal.
Clearly huge eclipses can have great consequences in mundane astrology and we can be prepared for a strong impact on world events.  Since the eclipse passes over China, probably the impact may indicate further riots which started there on the Lunar Eclipse of July 7th at the 15 degrees of Capricorn Cancer often indicating a conflict of personal rights and leadership (flat charts IC and MC mid points). From my point of view the power of eclipses is that this particular new moon has much greater impact on the solar wind and electromagnetic fields between the sun and the earth.
While all this mundane interest is of great importance, it is my purpose here is to suggest how one might consider this eclipse in relation to the natal chart.

First find where the 29th degree of Cancer is in your chart.  What house does the eclipse occur, for it will be in this area that eclipse will impact you. Also consider the house of the opposition — 29 of Capricorn.

If this eclipse hits a planet and activates any angular configurations, consider them very carefully.   For example this eclipse is close to my Pluto in Leo and within 2 degrees of my Moon in Aquarius!  This sets off my Moon-Pluto opposition, indicating that I will have to watch for some strong emotional transitions coming my way. And to be forewarned is to be prepared! This also eclipse hits nearly exactly on my wife’s nodes, so she too can look for changes in her first to 7th house axis, indicating her focus on the goals and future plans will be impacted especially on in areas of self growth and in open relationships, both good and, ah, not so good, such as person who can be a pain in the neck.  Certainly in my house the eclipse will create a lots of dynamic energy.

Often, especially in older astrology books, an eclipse of this magnitude will be considered malefic, or dangerous with possibly negative effects.  This is not alwaystrue.  While some of eclipses of this size have caused large mundane events, the effects in the vast number of natal charts can be very mixed indeed.  I have had clients who have had favorable results from eclipses.  Changes will occur in areas around the focus of the eclipse which will produce favorable outcomes.

Also consider that this eclipse occurs right on the cusp of Leo. The domestic and nurturing meets the leadership and the dramatic.  It is in this focus that we must consider what this means in our charts.  Each of us has situations at home and our outer life which will need to be scrutinized.  If there are areas here that changes have been resisted, this eclipse will affect a change so that growth can continue.

This will be an exciting time for this is truly a magnificent event to experience personally and in terms of the greater world of mundane events.

One final thing–we must consider the “bending” of an eclipse.  This bending occurs roughly 90 days after the eclipse, when the sun forms a T square to the axis of 29 Cancer/Capricorn.  This is often a time when the greatest impact will be seen.  Consider the eclipse in 2008  February and the great Cyclones that hit Burma and Thailand in Taurus. Large areas in Asia were hit with great natural disasters.  That is an example of the “bending” which is truly dynamic.  Most bending are less dramatic than this, but the concept watching events 90 days after the eclipse is something to be considered when one is studying how an eclipse will not only focus in the immediate areas of one’s chart and further on down the line.

All this being said:  be aware, be alert, look to the now and to the future with anticipation and preparation for some roller coaster events to bring dramatic changes and opportunity for personal growth and transformation.

Astrologers all over the world are writing articles and articles about the conjunction of Jupiter and Neptune at 26 of Aquarius and Uranus at 26 Pisces. And lets not forget Chiron right there with them, what could we do without the wounded healer in the mix. What conjuntions!  And rightly so, for the conjunction of Neptune and Jupiter, in any sign, is a significant moment in the cycles astrologers love to analyze. Consider a couple of these–September 1945, World War Two ends, also, January 1984, the first Apple computer is created.

But for my purposes here let’s look at the last time this conjunction took place in Aquarius was in 1843 when hypnotism and  psychology was beginning to open the depth of the unconscious mind.  Chemistry was advancing, photography was really getting launched. Steam was changing shipping. Surgery was changed by the use of ether to perform painless procedures.  The industrial sewing machine started to change how our clothes were pieced together.  Psychologists started thinking more specifically about dreams. Utopian ideas grew out of the thin air, Dorthy Dix started a movement for the reform of asylums and prisons.  While slavery was still around, part of the deepening drive for reform strengthened the antislavery sentiment and the battle over new states being free or slave holding was starting to get very heated in congress.

Needless the say many will say that Neptune Jupiter conjunctions happen every 13 years.  Well not in Aquarius, again, remember the last was 1843!  Obviously we have to turn our eye to social reform and efforts to bring historical problems into a better perspective.

Since I am also a palmist let me say this.  What makes astrology such a wonderful craft is that it takes in the whole history of man, whereas palmistry is always about the individual. A palmist will not be able to write about historical tends from the lines on the hand.  However when it comes to interpreting individual character palmistry can more than hold its own.

But what about Uranus?  It is at 26 of Pisces.  What might that mean?  Well it means a lot, Uranus is still in its dance of opposition with Saturn and this further indicates change to established ways of thinking and fundamentals.  Symbolic of this is that the first exact opposition of Uranus and Saturn was the November 4, 2008 and the election of the first Afro-American president in American history! Is not that indicative of a change in historical and fundamental ways of thinking.  Uranus brings change, inventiveness, revolutionary ideas, social reform, and a spike in the process of national individuation.  Saturn has to reorganize its structural parameters, the boundaries of the possible and the necessary.

In shorthand, Jupiter (expansiveness) Neptune (vision)  Uranus (change) are going into a synergy of energy which promise to really broaden the coming decades.  There are many scholarly articles and books which you can find on Google to study further if you wish.

In the moment of all this twenty-six degree analysis let me point out that what I want to focus on is the new moon at one degree of Cancer on June 22, 2009. You will get the big thrust of the twenty-six degree and so much more.
JUNE 22 09  NEW MOON

I predict that this new moon will be the most powerful one in years.  It is not an eclipse, but that does not diminish the power at work here. This is a mega new moon. The sun, moon and asteroid Vesta are all together at one degree of Cancer being opposed by Pluto at two degrees of Capricorn.  The north and south nodes both form an inconjunct with this configuration.  Here in Los Angeles, the ascendant will be twenty-six of Virgo directly opposite Uranus.  The extra sweetness in this mix is an exact trine of Saturn in Virgo with Mars and Venus in Taurus at sixteen degrees.  What an incredible configuration!

Every planet is in aspect to something except Mercury, which makes this singleton very important, in Gemini,  communication is the only answer.

I often tire of long drawn out delineations of planetary configurations.  What I want to express here is that the time of this new moon is the best meditative moment in the whole year of 2009.

Everyone who reads this blog should make plans to meditate during this time. Personally I will be getting together with some seasoned practitioners of meditation to seek a personal direction as we enter into the deeper astrological events to follow.  It is a time to seek the release of old visions, old structures, old thought forms and to purify the inner being with the powers of not only the outer planets but of the personal as well.  The heart, the soul, the core of self is going to be tested as we go forth from this new moon.   And Mercury as the sole unaspected planet is key in the sense that it is dignified and, on the west coast, in the ninth house.

But the important thing is that this solistace point will be a watershed of some kind. We must start counting these moments as the clock starts to tick down to 2012. The upcoming Cardnal Cross of 2010 lurks ahead, as does the conclusion of the Saturn Uranus conjunction in September of 2009.

T.S. Eliot once wrote that there are moments which are the touchstones of an age, points which define a generation.  Eliot wrote the poem, “The Wasteland” as the expression of the despair of the first half of the twentieth century and the two world great wars–which I might add ended not with a whimper, but with the bang of an atomic bomb.

The question that I pose is, “What is going to be the touchstone of the opening of the twenty-first century?” September 11 was the true beginning of a century that may well get completely out of control. Humanity will be tested as never before. We must pass this test if the younger generation is even to have a planet to inherit!
Still, it is my belief that for each of us who meditates, that during the new moon of June 22, 2009, there will begin a depth of insight and vision, and there will be something magical to this point in time–a time where there will be a wave of vibration, a vibration so important that to miss this wave will be like the poor surfer who missed the greatest set of waves in a generation, simply because he was not in the ocean that day.

Be sure you get into the magical moment of June 22, 2009!

As I write this blog, Mercury is about to go retrograde.  This is a big event in the astrological field. Many people will not travel, sign contracts or start new projects during this time.  Some of this may be rethought when you think that Mercury is retrograde for two months and a week every years. In my own practice I find the last week of the retrograde is the strongest and where one has to be most careful.

Critics of astrology will argue that this fact of two months a year of retrograde activity alone renders Mercury retrograde as a myth.  Mercury is such a small planet, so close to the sun, that who can say it even has any effect?  In this respect, science proves the critics wrong.

There are facts to point out that Mercury is actually a powerhouse with a magnetic field stronger than that the Earth’s, which is hard to believe, but that is what we have learned from flyby satellites.  Here is part of a NASA report about this surprising fact.

The magnetosphere is a region of space around Mercury enveloped by the planet’s magnetic field. Gusty solar wind buffeting the global bubble of magnetism can potentially trigger magnetic storms and other space weather-related phenomena.

“During the first flyby, MESSENGER measured relatively calm dipole-like magnetic fields close to the planet. Scientists didn’t detect any dynamic features other than some Kelvin-Helmholtz waves,” said James Slavin of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Slavin is a mission co-investigator and lead author of one of the papers.

“But the second flyby was a totally different situation,” he says. MESSENGER observed a highly dynamic magnetosphere with “magnetic reconnection” events taking place at a rate 10 times greater than what is observed at Earth during its most active intervals. “The high rate of solar wind energy input was evident in the great amplitude of the plasma waves and the large magnetic structures measured by the spacecraft’s magnetometer throughout the encounter.”

What can one say, but “Wow.”

This magnetosphere is important when considering the mental attributes generally given to interpreting the Mercury in the astrological chart. Thus in a clear sense, the definition so often given to Mercury, that of mental skills and the nervous system, is reflected in this new information from NASA.

With this in mind, it might not be just a superstition that Mercury retrograde foretells  communication problems.  Why is it that it is when Mercury is retrograde that my computer or cell phone decides to give me problems.  Watch the accident reports, the power outages, the negative news (which is usually negative enough!) and it will amaze one that it is possible that there is an increase in problems.  Is this the full moon superstition which critics are always yapping about: the fact that when compared to data collected over a long period of time that the full moon periods do not seem to produce the wild emotional swings that many astrologers and members of Wicca, etc.point out. But lets not go there.
What I want to do here is not to get into a general argument of the meaning of retrograde. What I want to do here is to share with readers of this blog the fact that Mercury, when studied by scientists, has proven to be a powerful planet.  And with its power that close to the sun, could one not also argue that Mercury may in fact have something to do in some slight way with the streaming of the solar wind.  Remember, it takes only a little motion to create a big effect.  If we consider that, according to fractals, a moth’s wing could cause a whirlwind in Iowa, the amazing title of an article from a professor at MIT!  then why not Mercury creating changes in the electromagnetic sphere here on earth.

Think about it.

Chiron is a puzzling member of the sub-sized members of our solar system.  Scholars debate its origin as a comet, a traveling planetoid, or other type of roaming space rock just rambling around the universe and presently in orbit around our sun, but someday will leave us to go on its journey.\

The important thing about Chiron is that it relates to wounding and healing.  Chiron, the Centar was the wisest of his race of half-man, half-horse.  He was wounded by a poisoned arrow of Herculies in an unfortunate accident.  Being immortal he could not die, but had to endure his wound, to reconcile with it and move on, teaching and healing.

Where Chiron is in your chart is where you will experience a significant pain, something that will affect your life and which must be healed through a deep awareness of the nature of this psychic wound and how to understand and work through the effect it has had on your life.

Presently Chiron is about to make a conjunction with Neptune in the sign of Aquarius.  To my mind, this will be an opportunity to look at how each of us relates to the pain and healing of the collective. We are all involved with the pain of lack of vision of many leaders of the various forces in the world and personal  areas.  Greed has wounded our financial markets, aggressive religous fanatics and jingoism threaten the very fabric of the world community.  The rape of Gia the mother earth continues. As a culture we have fallen into a culture that is polluting the planet.

It seems to me that Chiron in Aquarius gives usthe chance to seriously work on healing this wound.  The time is right for people to start working towards solutions to these problems.  It road will be difficult, but new is the time to make a start as each individual realizes that he can do something like recycle, using less energy, cut back on products that continue to pollute.  We have seen a popular new President rise up during this time, it is a time to heal the planet and our vision as a people.

On a personal level this passage of Chiron through Aquarius gives us the opportunity to re-examine the personal vision of our lives, those areas where we have be wounded by making wrong choices, where out side events may have also wounded us to our very soul. This is the time to look to resetting goals for our journey, to find a new and meaninful direction in self achievement and definition. There is a lesson and the  potential for growth in even the most unsettling forms of pain if only the wound is seen as something that can be worked through.

Death, accidents, prejudice, divorce are just a few of the pains we humans must endure.  But during this time of Chiron is Aquarius,the potential of astrology can be most helpful.  The astrologer knows that the solar system keeps on moving, that new planetary configurations will transit the natal chart.  The secret is to use the knowledge of astrology to understand that all is transitory, all will change.  And in this constant change we are governed by the choices we make as the evolving planets move on.

Our challenge then is to heal ourselves through the insight of astrology.  That it is our ability to continue choosing the best choices that the concept of happiness is generated from within.  To continue to dwell on the pain of a wound is to be captured in a moment that keeps one from moving forward.  As deep as the pain may have been, astrology teaches us that we must move on, we must learn, and continue to learn how to cope with the challenges that life, that the transits to the natal chart, gives us.  It is the only way for growth.  Just look at those who have dealt with their pain and moved on as to those who continue to carry their pain with out letting it go.  The obvious answer is to move on, those people who have learned from their pain and created a larger vision for themselves are the role models to emulate.  This is the lesson of Chiron, to heal ourselves both as a culture and as an individual.  And thetime of Chiron is Aquarius is the time to get in touch with the larger collective, the true revelation of ” as above so below” metaphor that can guide us to the true miracle of astrology, to see in the signs and the planets a way to discover and heal ourselves.

     Until April 17, the planet Venus is retrograde.  The cycle of this retrograde is 40 days, as period of time that carries a lot of significance outside the world of astrology.  The great rain of Noah lasted 40 days, the Jews wandered in the wilderness for 40 years.  Forty days Moses was in the mount, Exodus 24:18; and to receive the Law, Exodus 24:18. Forty days Moses was in the mount after the sin of the Golden Calf, Deuteronomy 9:18, 25. Forty days of Elijah in Horeb, 1 Kings 19:8. Forty days of Jonah and Nineveh, Jonah 3:4. Forty days Ezekiel lay on his right side to symbolize the 40 years of Judah’s transgression. Forty days Jesus was tempted of the Devil, Matthew 4:2. Forty days Jesus was seen of His disciples, speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God, Acts 1:2.

Could the significance of forty days in the bible?  During their time in Babylon and in Egypt the Hebrews were exposed to some of the finest of ancient astrologers.  Could these stories be told in a way that mirrors a length of time that directly corresponds to the retrograde cycle of Venus? It is hard to say.

          However the retrograde cycle of Venus does give us all time to pause.  Venus rules Taurus and Libra, the second and seventh house. In my opinion, this is time to reflect on the traits of these two signs. Venus is first and foremost a planet of love. The myth of Inanna shows the power of love and betrayal in Inanna’s descent to the under world to see her sister.  So love and the consideration of the issues of love are the first order of business in Venus retrograde.  Where has love been rewarding in one’s life?

Where has it lead to heartbreak?

          Venus in Libra is also the diplomat, the social politician who can navigate the ways of negotiation and compromise.  This then would also represent a time of reflecting over the challenges of one’s social relations, business negotiations and charitable activities.

          For me as an astrologer, this is a time of reflection on the meaning of life, a time to go inward like the great biblical leaders who reflected forty days on matters of deep spiritual importance.  After forty days of spiritual prayer Abraham leaves his father to seek his own way.  This is so important.  During Venus retrograde we each have a chance to meditate and consider finding our own way, our own path.  During this time I suggest to my clients that they go inward and think about their life, their loves and loses, their successes and failures.  From this reflection they can move forward sure that they are renewed and full of positive energy to continue their journey through life.

In his comments on the Kabbalah and astrology, Shimon Halevi, writes that Neptune should be considered at the top crown of the Tree of Life.  The basic core of Halevi”s thinking is that out of depth of Neptune’s amorphous vision and illusion, out of the pulsing of  the cosmic realm that is symbolized by the water planet we catch a sense of the primordial.  The interplay of so many complex myths come together in the ocean, certainly the cradle of life. And each individual comes to understand the secrets of life as revealed to them by their own encounters with the inner spiritual realm that is hidden deep within us.  Our very blood stream is part of Neptune’s grasp, as it is of the water of the ocean, saline and full of nutrients, that ties us to the tide of life. As astrologers what is interesting is Halevi’s contention that by house, sign and location of the ruler of that house one can determine where the deepest religious experience will occur.  I offer this information to those who follow this blog to test it in their own chart.  It is important to remember that you must be working with an accurate birth time to determine the house that a natal Neptune can be found.

As an example, in my chart Neptune is found in Libra in the fourth house whose cusp is Virgo. To make this simple, my religious quest began in my home, when I was young.  Mercury the ruler of Virgo is in the third house, as is Venus, ruler of the Libra Neptune. As it worked out for me, I did begin my religious seeking through my conflict with my father, symbolized by Mercury square Saturn.  Also I turned to mysticism and found myself so involved with the religious life style that I have written (third house Mercury) about my adventures in seeking to understand the cosmos.

Please take a moment and look at where Neptune is in your chart and see if it offers any insights as to how you came to discover you path to higher consciousness. Delve into the symbolism and see what you can come up with.  Sometimes insights come from the smallest attention to detail! More on this unique perspective in a future blog.

Pendulum palmistry ™, or psychic palmistry requires the student to comprehend the basic bio-dynamic movements of the pendulum. When conscientiously studied and used skillfully with mindfulness, the pendulum reveals the deeper aspects the individual personality and the underpinnings of the energy fields of their life force. This leads to successfully gaining “psychic” insights to future events. As a child we all were endowed with gifted intuition; then environmental factors repress this facet of the psyche as socialization and cultural hierarchies thunder in, wielding an oppressive and conforming force on  the individual.

It must be acknowledged that the very idea of finding a way of teaching the fundamentals of psychic or pendulum palmistry that is presented here is what many would consider an impossible task.  Some may view it as unfeasible, a madcap dabbling that flies in the face of the plausible since historically psychic ability is a talent that most observers consider a unique kind of gift received by a selected few.  It is commonly believed these blessed or fated people were empowered with the ability to “see beyond the veil.”  Psychic gifts were and still are considered a mysterious endowment of intuitive insights one is simply  born with. 

          Yet I know intuitive skills can be taught.  Over the years  I developed my own personal psychic techniques for reading palms! The key is in utilizing the pendulum as a tool to explore the depth of the psyche.   Through a careful study  I learned to use  the pendulum for judging chakra, aura, and bio-fields.  The result is a psychic palmistry  technique using the pendulum which has been improved upon through many years of giving private readings, working at holistic expos and performing as a party palmist at various galas.  As I experimented and learned from this great cross section of people, my understanding grew and my skills warmly received.      Pendulum palmistry ™ is my instructive method for awakening psychic ability.  It is a unique and innovative approach to reading palms that is not only insightful, but is a technique which can be readily learned by the sincere and ethical student who is willing to try.  This eclectic approach to hand analysis is truly remarkable and the results can be amazing as one’s proficiencies grow into the ability to see and interpret the hidden energies emanating from the core of the psyche and revealed through the palm.  It can open up a whole intriguing vista and reveal the depth of the palm’s connection to the hidden bioelectric energies of the mind. This insights can have far reaching implications and deliver personal growth through the realization of what a miracle life is.  It is a learning and healing process that brings a spirit of  growth and wisdom.  So let’s begin!  Watch this blog for more details.

I would like to start a discussion of handedness in palmistry.  The subject has long ben of a special interest to me. Astrology is the stars. There is a cosmic connection, but distant. Astrology is a graph on a piece of paper about points in the sky at birth.  Palmistry has the hands, a physical connection.

The palmist has to think about right or left handedness.  What if the stronger hand is not the truly most stable or talented. If one thinks for a moment about the question: what does it mean when the sub-dominate hand has a the stronger dermatological pattern, what happens when that pattern is reversed and through extrodinary efforts the sub-dominate hand is trained to be dominate, what is the outcome.

If, say a right handed person has a terrible palm (from a palmistry point of view) and the left, or passive hand print is stronger.  My opinion is that the individual should make every effort to change their handedness so that the best palm is on the dominate or active hand.  At another writing about this subject, I will offer neurological thoughts about this, however for now let me tall an anecdote.

I had occassion to read the palms of two individuals, both of whom had very difficult lines on their dominate hand (right handedness in these two instances) and superior hands in so many ways on the left hand.  The issues involved imagination, resourcefulness, discipline, independence and emotional stability.

During the course of reading the palms of each of these two individuals, I told them I though they should use their left hands more as it would have positive impact on their lives. I had a couple of graphics that I showed each of them.  They both had meanial jobs and the cost of a palmistry reading was substancial to them.

In the course of time I ran into both of them.  The one who had taken my advice and actually started using their left hand more had gotten more self control and had advanced to a better and higher paying job.  The one who did nothing about my advice remained at a very marginal leverl of employment and of emotional stability.

The point I am starting to make here and will advance in further blogs is that handedness has a neurological basis which can be changed by human will.  To will the sub-dominate hand into dominance for benefit of seeing the strengths of that palm become manifest in the life is a topic that, to me, needs to be studied further, something I will continue to do at times in this blog.

Consider that the lines on the palm, that palmistry, is a study of dna and you will get a sense of the revolutionary insights that chieromancy and chierology can give the individual looking for self help in the quest for an enlightened individuation.

There are signs a long the way that indicate you may have a special gift, unseen coincidences keep pushing you in the “crazy” mode. Every good, authentic astrologer, palm reader or tarot psychic whom I know can point to a couple experiences which lead them to realize that they were different, that they had an ability to tune into people and receive intuitive insights. For example at an early age you may start seeing spirits or angels. You may not have had names for them, but you saw them and they were there, playing with you. When I was almost five years old I saw my first spiritual beings. I was sick and the medical doctors thought I was dying of double pneumonia. I mumbled to my grandmother that “yellow light friends” were playing with me. My grandmother, a tough woman who had survived the dust bowl and other hard times during the Great Depression, took this as a sure sign that I was dying, that angels had come for my spirit
. The whole family was gathered to cry over my small bed in St. Joseph’s Hospital. I was with my “yellow light friends” up above the bed looking down, on a sight which to this day remains fresh and resilient. There was my mom, my Aunt Helma, Aunt Ruth Ann and Grandmother. They were praying in that way only women in the face of death can pray, with gut and spirit streaming from their core. I recovered, but I had changed. Suddenly I developed opinions in all matters of spirit, correcting my elders when they projected what heaven might be like. My Grandmother told me I was a know it all and “piped up all the time.” Slowly this experience slipped away. I became a normal kid again.
Everyone who has the calling may also get an experience what I call being hammered. Being hammered is a great pain, a pain that is slow to heal. For me it was not nearly dying as a young boy. My hammer was the death of my father when I was seventeen. Children of divorce or a death know a deep pain, a cutting to the heart where reality twists the knife of loss and the dark powers can enter, allowing depression, escapism, compulsion and despair to overwhelm the spirit. My father was a strong man, an electrical engineer, a WWII survivor. Just when I was getting to know him as a man, cancer took him away. The hammer got me good. I learned to cry alone, run wild, drink, chase young coeds, defy authority. My mother begged me to grow up. But I lived in a stupor of avoidance. I read On Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and declared the world insane.
Then I met a woman, the grandmother of a girl friend, who taught me how to read palms and cards. From the first time I met grandmother Harris she told me I had the calling and she was going to teach me. Joan, my girl fiend at the time, told me that grandmother Harris was always looking for the a disciple, since no one in her family seemed willing to learn these skills.
Grandmother Harris had been a member of the Theosophical Society, had both a reading and a medial diagnosis by Edgar Casey, and advocated prayer and meditation for nearly everything. Grandmother’s response to most of life’s trials was, “Lets have a cup of herbal tea.” She was an enthusiastic teacher and I went wild for this knowledge. As a young undergraduate and graduate student, my tarot cards where always in my book bag. I would give reading to a small group of friends. It was a pleasant hobby and it made me feel popular and needed. One of my classmates, Helen, wouldn’t go out on a first date with a young man unless the cards were right. “Why tempt fate?” she’d say.
My second experience with my “yellow light friends” occurred in Nigeria, where I was a teacher in the Peace Corps. West Africa wasn’t called the white man’s grave yard for nothing. During the rainy season I fell ill and ran a tremendous fever of 105. Sweating like a pig and I remember thinking that a high fever wouldn’t be such a bad way to die, better than cancer. The heat just bakes you until you’re done. No pain. No shrinking and shrinking until the body is just a shell like my Dad went through with cancer. Suddenly my consciousness was with my “friends of light.” We were sitting on a rotating ceiling fan right over my bed watching Hersh and David , my Peace Corps buddies, work over my sweating body with large towels that they soaked in a solution of alcohol and water. They kept washing me down trying to reduce the fever. I was pretty sure I was a goner and I felt relieved. I loved my buddies for working so hard on my body. But I was ready to become a light being.
What happened next can only be described as madness. I suddenly woke up on the bed and looked at David and Hersh.. “I’m immortal and I’ve got no time for this,” I shouted. An English major, I always had lots of books around me, even in the middle of upper region of the Benue River. Leaping from the bed I raced to my book shelf, now shouting, “There are the immortal of Siddhartha and the damned of the earth.” I then proceeded to go through all my books tossing them either into an enlightened pile or a damned pile. All the while David and Hersh were trying to get me to bed. Only when every book in my house had been judged enlightened or damned did I submit to going to bed, where I slept for over twenty four hours. The fever had broken. But as Hersh said, “Something happened to your head, man.”
I became obsessed with sex as a union with god through a woman, got heavily in to Tantra and the significance of sexual transcendence. After living by my wits and palmistry skills in Tangier for six months I wrote what my suffering mother called a “dirty” novel about the transformation and damnation of it all. It got published. This nearly ruined me. To be twenty six with a well received novel out can cause serious ego troubles. I quit a secure teaching job to go to Los Angeles, to try to write for the TV and film industry.
Los Angeles taught me humility, for it is a big town with a huge creative community which is competitive beyond belief. I hit this town like a big bug hits a windshield, with a splat. Lots of people were published and had novels out, but never mind that, scripts were in. I had to learn a new form. I was struggling to make it as a writer, each month the rent was an ordeal.
My transition to the psychic life style came through a freelance writing assignment. VIVA Magazine interviewed me to do some freelance work. During this meeting, I told the editor, Kitty, that I could read palms. She immediately wanted a reading. Three weeks later Kitty called me with an assignment to do an article built around a palm reading of Dominique Sanda, a hot European actress. Dominique was staying with a friend, Linda, in a swank house with a long drive way in Belle Aire. I did Dominique’s reading and Linda asked for a reading as well. A week later I received a call from Linda offering to pay me to “perform” at a party.
This is where my call to be a astrologer and palm reader became a reality. One party lead to another. Soon my psychic income was out running my freelance writing income. The Los Angeles market for metaphysical people and ideas is huge. There are more people in L.A. who use metaphysical readers either as party entertainment or personal advisers than any other city in the U.S. Also, at that time, there were psychic fairs everywhere. All this was before the present day famous psychic phone lines advertized on TV. Now the market is flooded.
I look back affectionately on those times in L.A. when I starved as a writer and learned the craft of working with people in the metaphysical arena. Eventually I came to write about the craft of astrology, Astrology and the Games People Play, and palmistry, Romance on Your Hands. These books are still in print, unlike my youthful novel, Mad Dog Press which emerged, danced in the light of the early seventies and then sank without trace. I have written one movie that was produced, Street Soldiers. I am not proud of this film, but is kept me alive. I have written script, Behind the Dolphin’s Smile, a look at how to return captured dolphins back to the sea. This has been optioned. This book seeks to present the underlying dynamic of what it is like being a reader, the process of mind and the spiritual discipline.
Since I have a Master’s Degree in Education from Harvard, my mother finds it hard to understand my life style. What am I doing with all this fancy education? I know the Harvard Alumni Association finds it difficult to understand my life style. The conservative view is that I should make my mark in a “normal” way and not stick out like some kind of soar thumb with this Hocus Pocos reading stuff.. What kind of man spends his life dressing up in a tux, cape and turban and goes to corporate parties and plays the Fortune Teller? Or, what kind of man sits in his study and uses palmistry or astrology to give advice to people? Especially when he is a certified teacher. My answer: it is my calling. I did not choose this, it chose me. Or as my pal Hersh said after my illness in Africa, “Something happened to your head, man.”
The snippets of thoughts in this book will give you, the reader, the pieces of the puzzle necessary to put together your own thoughts about human nature in general, this calling, its clients, ancestors in the tradition and the true tools of the trade. It is a grand calling, an ancient endeavor, full of great minds, wonderful sacrifice and devotion. It is also a calling full of cheats and thieves. But it’s life. As in politics, the ministry, medicine, insurance salesman, to name a few, the problem is the same: buyer beware
The only proof to any spiritual enterprise is in the fruits of the labor. Every great religious and spiritual movement has this common axis: Good spirit brings good deeds. Good Spirit nurtures love. Negative creates negative, positive creates positive. Let me tell you how to read this book. Lay its words upon your heart, see if its truths or ironies brings you to any greater understanding. This book has been written upon the bare rock of my experience. Take what buoys you up. Take what love you find here.

When setting goals it is important to consider the phases of the moon. Classically the new moon is considered the best time to start a project or set a goal. Of course there are times when we do not have the option, we need to get started. The best time to set a goal, then becomes a question. The answer is right after sunset. The sun, the giver of light to the moon is then in the sixth house and is actually sending the moon light that reflects the needs of short term work plans, short trips, health considerations and by opposition to the 11th house presents personal needs at a higher priority than conformity to a group.

Meditating at sunset is a good way to put the right energy on setting goals. Also consider that the goal set at the beginning of the evening will then be processed further by the mind as it sleeps. A further gestation of the goal which will give it power at the dawning of the new day.