Mars Vibes, Pluto Shockers and a Babylonian Playlist

Today’s quote from my friend MM: “We are byproducts of the cosmos not the custodians.”

Frederick Woodruff

May 21, 2022

“God created war so that Americans would learn geography.” –Mark Twain

Dreamtime Nuptials

🔴 AS MARS SEPARATES from the honeymoon with Neptune this is a great weekend to acquaint yourself with the concept of tenkan, one of the key tenets of aikido. A martial art that rechannels the momentum of your opponent to your advantage.

Mars-Neptune skill set: parsing confusing vibes to give you the upper hand, especially against your most troubling fears.

Mars conjunctions coerce disparate elements into a new round of one-pointed expression. The sort of force that hatches clarity. A cycle that reignites when Mars conjuncts Neptune again in the late spring of 2024.

This is ‘chapter one’ —a two-year run—you could say. Mermaids and mermen traverse effortlessly between land and sea. Crazy ass old movie to rewatch: Day of the Dolphin.

Although, a caveat: Mars Neptune can often condense into tricky psychological koans like this observation from Ralph Waldo Emerson:

“Solitude is impractical and yet society is fatal.”

And while you’re working on that puzzle here’s another: The US is at war (Mars)—but no one ‘knows’ about it (Neptune).

Finally, if you wondered how the Mars Neptune conjunction infused your urge for compassionate activism (and dream-state strategizing), Wednesday puts everything in high detail when Mars meets up with Jupiter in Aries. You’re missing your fins but you’re two heads taller.

Pluto Through the Review Mirror

🔴 OVER ON THE ALWAYS unpredictable Aeolian Heart website there is—without a doubt—one of the most fascinating astrological discussions I’ve heard all year between Rachel and John Michael Greer. Greer is an American druid who recently published The Twilight of Pluto. A book that explores the symbolic meaning of Pluto’s demotion from planet to ‘dwarf.’ And what ensued socioculturally after the fact. Carve out some time for this fascinating discussion.

Social Media Death Update

🔴 My friend Jessica Murray calls my obsession with Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg my own Melvilian “white whale” crusade. Truth for sure.

Two great reads I collided with this week. First from Ryan Broderick’s Garbage Day SS, titled: Facebook's Current State of Decomposition. (Speaking of whales). Ryan writes:

“I’ve previously compared the current state of Facebook to the rotting carcass of a beached whale—dead, but too big to do anything with, and has thus become a huge thriving biome for various parasites.”

And a year-old interview with UK documentarian Adam Curtis who drills through the unchecked, oft-repeated cliches in Social Media is a Scam. His unique take counters the universal fear mongering about SM.

“Everyone goes: ‘Oh that’s magical!’ about the internet, but so what? That’s actually just so banal. People go: ‘Oh it’s terrible, they’re manipulating us!’ or: ‘They know so much about me!’ Well, what do they know about you? Your shopping? That’s it? What they don’t know, actually, are all the things that you’ve forgotten which are your real intelligence, and that world that you live in your head, day by day—which is rich and extraordinary

🔴 IT SEEMS TOO MORONIC to contemplate for an inordinate amount of time (like so many things on social media). And yet: People on the internet are doing weird things with hangers which cause their heads to swivel uncontrollably. We’re officially into a Mercury retrograde conjunct the Sun terrain (today’s key transit).

Annie Rauwerda notes: “It’s hard to imagine human predecessors sticking hangers on each other’s heads as they roamed the savannas, you know? But for all its mystery, the hanger reflex may be good for more than entertainment.”

Still—why?