All posts by Mike Zonta

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New Moon In Gemini – Perhaps There’s A Different Way

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Astro Butterfly Jun 17, 2023

On June 18th, 2023 we have a New Moon at 26° Gemini.

The New Moon is conjunct Juno, the asteroid of commitment and devotion. Mercury, the ruler of the New Moon, is whispering sweet words into Venus’ ears. And Jupiter is applying a friendly sextile to Saturn, presenting us with practical steps to turn those goals into reality.

This all sounds nice, BUT there’s way to go. The most important aspect the New Moon in Gemini makes is a strong applying square to Neptune at 27° Pisces.

The New Moon in Gemini will remind you of what’s important to you, painting a picture of how things could be. But Neptune will make you doubt yourself every step of the way.

Neptune Squares – Helpless Against The Tide

Neptune transits can get a bad rap because Neptune is associated with illusion, deception, and things that are not what they seem.

However, this is a limiting way of looking at Neptune. Neptune’s end goal is not to deceive us – but to help us find a higher, more integrative synthesis.

A square is a tense aspect experienced as a “me against the world” scenario. When we have a square transit, we feel that no matter how hard we try, there are outside forces, or insurmountable circumstances that prevent us from achieving our goals. We are in a tug of war with the world.

A Neptune square is not an Uranian unexpected turn of events. Nor a dramatic Pluto power struggle.

Neptune squares feel like the world is slowly drowning and disintegrating. That things are slipping through our fingers, leaving us floating with the tide, headless, directionless, at the mercy of the ocean.

Initially, Neptune squares challenge our reality. “I am just helpless against the tide?” “Can I really make this happen, or am I just daydreaming?” “I knew this was too good to be true”.

The Neptune square will make us doubt our Sun-Moon-Juno commitment. But if we stop at this preliminary, confusing stage, we are missing the higher purpose of the transit.

Neptune – Connecting The Unconnectable

Neptune is an outer planet, and outer planets – unlike personal planets – are collective energies we can’t make sense of in the same way we make sense of Mercury or Mars.

If Mercury is how you or I think, Uranus – as the higher octave of Mercury – is the sum of all our individual brains, and more. Uranus is the collective bank of thoughts – it’s the supercomputer of humankind.

If Venus is how you or I feel, Neptune is the collective bank of feelings. And If Mars is how you or I act, Pluto is the collective bank of actions.

Coming back to Neptune. Neptune is associated with unconditional love, which is really what happens when all our individual Venuses merge together to seek higher unity.

And the way Neptune finds this higher unity is by diffusing personal identifications, you vs. me, what I want vs. what you want. Neptune is that ocean of oneness where we connect with the world at a soul level.

We can only find the higher love, this soul connection, when we go beyond 3D identification layers.

Neptune is the God of the oceans. Think of the ocean. No one ‘owns’ the ocean. Oceans don’t have a name or an identification label in the way people or countries do.

How could they? Their role is to connect – people, things, ideas – that are otherwise very different, and very far apart. That don’t speak the same language, and don’t operate under the same laws. Neptune’s goal is to connect the unconnectable.

New Moon in Gemini Vs. Neptune In Pisces

The New Moon in Gemini square Neptune in Pisces will make us aware of something that doesn’t make sense at first.

You may read something that challenges your understanding of the world. This may be something that is so far away from your definition of truth that you immediately label it as a “lie”, “BS” or “conspiracy theory”.

You can tell yourself “Ah, of course, just another Neptune delusion, so good I know astrology” …

OR you could look at it as an opportunity to reframe your understanding of reality.

The New Moon in Gemini is wired for facts and hard data. “I see it or it doesn’t exist”.

Neptune in Pisces is wired for finding meaning beyond facts and hard data.

Gemini and Mercury rule researchers, and Neptune and Pisces rule scientists and theoreticians.

Einstein was a Pisces! He came up with his creative theories not by employing Gemini, hard-data approaches, but by using his imagination. Neptune helps us close our eyes and “see” what is otherwise invisible to the eye.

It’s in Neptune’s fertile oceans that we can extrapolate numbers and notes, find theorems, and make music.

But to get there, we have to go beyond our Gemini filter.

Is not that the Gemini approach is not useful. It is extremely useful – without our Gemini pair of eyes and ears, we wouldn’t survive.

But then we want to take things a step further. We can still use Gemini to tip our toes into the ocean. Once in the ocean, we then need to trust the tide and let it take us to places we’ve never been before.

New Moon In Gemini – Perhaps There’s A Different Way

The New Moon in Gemini is an invitation to question our understanding of reality, and reframe our perspective.

Perhaps there is something you feel very attached to. Juno conjunctions remind us of what matters to us. Juno is what we will never give up on because it’s part of who we are.

Perhaps you always wanted to be a writer, or a screen player. Or you’re still in love with someone who is no longer in your life. Juno is our undying devotion – what will always matter to us, the “promises we made from the cradle to the grave”.

At the New Moon, Neptune squaring the Sun-Moon-Juno conjunction will initially make us doubt our Juno commitment: “Who am I to become a screenplayer?” “Some things are not meant to be”. “I’ve always been chasing this ideal, only to be disappointed”.

If you’ve been doing the same thing over and over with no results this doesn’t necessarily mean you should give up. Perhaps you’re not supposed to do things that way.

Perhaps there’s a different way.

New Moon In Gemini Reflection Prompts

How do you react when faced with something that challenges your understanding of the world? How can you reframe your initial thoughts and explore new perspectives?

Is there something you have always held onto, no matter what? How might the New Moon in Gemini square Neptune invite you to reimagine your approach and consider alternative paths to make your dream a reality?

Imagine yourself metaphorically stepping into Neptune’s ocean of oneness. What new perspectives and experiences await you in this expanded space?

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Gemini New Moon, June 17th, 2023

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Wendy Cicchetti

Gemini New Moon

The Gemini New Moon reminds us of our need for and the value of connections of all kinds, especially those in our local communities. Gemini is a vocal sign, and sometimes we need to just listen and pay attention to what is said, rather than respond. Or maybe everyone needs to observe their own reactions and options in some matters before they have their say.

A facet of dual-bodied Gemini also points to dealing with multiples, whether it’s projects, sets of people, or situations. Since the Moon squares Neptune in Pisces, there is a chance matters could become disorganized, or we could lose the thread in explanations and conversations. Note facts and details on paper or electronically to preserve a record and create a reference point for use down the line.

Occasionally, we cannot help a situation that goes awry and we may need to navigate it carefully to manage any fallout. Such is the way with squares — a problem is either divided internally, or the wrong thread is hooked into externally. Hopefully, we spot our problem early and can backtrack to avert disaster. If we’ve managed to get into a knotty situation, however, our job is to unravel the knots and stop any further snags from occurring. Most likely, all is not lost — we just need to gain clarity on the situation. It’s a bit easier if we can bring in the assistance of someone who understands our point of view and appreciates that of the other side too. Perhaps finding a middle ground between both perspectives provides a helpful answer. Neptune in “dignity” (in its own sign) indicates a sacrifice worth making, assisting a situation not otherwise easily improved.

The Moon happens to conjoin Juno, an asteroid that references marriage and other key commitments. It may be that the Gemini focus has us feeling loyalties to more than one side. And yet, we probably need to find a way to marry divergent viewpoints together or align people who are on different tracks to follow the same path. This may or may not be easy, and the answer may require us to strike a balance between our intuition and logic.

As Neptune in Pisces opposes Ceres in Virgo, there’s a t-square among the Lights, Neptune, and the asteroids Juno and Ceres. This points to a need to find a solution that can provide nurturing in multiple directions. It’s not quite as tricky as trying to please all of the people all of the time, as the saying goes! But, we might benefit from spotting a point of compromise, which, in turn, will help lessen tension and restore some peace.

Where we might temporarily come a cropper is by way of a hazy or forgetful mindset, courtesy of Neptune. Should we let a key date or detail slip, someone may feel threatened, despite our unbreakable loyalty, and we could need to quickly sharpen up our act to keep on their right side!

Contrariwise, Neptune could be just the trick we need to slip quietly away from someone who has a grip or design on us, while we have different needs or desires! What initially appears challenging could be the very situation that helps us manage that maneuver, so perhaps not every snag should be viewed as an annoyance or pointless distraction.

Sometimes, there are situations when matters keep us from fulfilling commitments — even if only to ourselves. However, now is not the time to wallow in regret or get lost in despair. Instead, refocus and take the first steps to get back on track. The Moon’s dispositor is Mercury, dignified in Gemini, squaring Saturn in Pisces. It may feel like a tough swim along choppy waters, and we may need to sacrifice something to manage it, but we’ll find our stride and make solid progress once we get going!

This article is from the Mountain Astrologer by Diana McMahon Collis

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Book: “America’s Next Great Awakening: What the Convergence of Mysticism, Religion, Atheism & Science Means for the Nation. And You.”

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America’s Next Great Awakening: What the Convergence of Mysticism, Religion, Atheism & Science Means for the Nation. And You.

Christopher W. Naughton

Is America’s historic polarization ultimately a spiritual crisis? Is the solution America’s Next Great Awakening?
If America is to realize its sacred purpose-unity in diversity-an inner awakening that spans belief systems and religions (including atheism), transcends ideologies, and honors scientific realities must emerge. America’s Next Great Awakening tells fascinating stories from within the American soul-stories from our past, our myths, and our optimal futures, charting our way to resolving our current crises, preserving the American republic, and evolving into something more, towards a “more perfect union.” History may not repeat itself, but it does rhyme. Can America, once again, fulfill its mission as the global leader in conscious awareness, enlightenment, invention, and moral leadership?

(Goodreads.com)

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Study Reveals Staggering Health Toll of Being Black in America

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Mortality rates among Black Americans have resulted in 1.63 million excess deaths over 22 years.Non-Hispanic Black newborns are 2½ times as likely to die before their first birthdays as non-Hispanic whites. Image: Adobe

LIZ SZABO / OREGON CAPITAL CHRONCILE (truthdig.com)

Research has long shown that Black people live sicker lives and die younger than white people.

Now a new study, published in JAMA, casts the nation’s racial inequities in stark relief, finding that the higher mortality rate among Black Americans resulted in 1.63 million excess deaths relative to white Americans over more than two decades.

Because so many Black people die young—with many years of life ahead of them—their higher mortality rate from 1999 to 2020 resulted in a cumulative loss of more than 80 million years of life compared with the white population, the study showed.

Although the nation made progress in closing the gap between white and Black mortality rates from 1999 to 2011, that advance stalled from 2011 to 2019. In 2020, the enormous number of deaths from covid-19—which hit Black Americans particularly hard—erased two decades of progress.

Authors of the study describe it as a call to action to improve the health of Black Americans, whose early deaths are fueled by higher rates of heart disease, cancer, and infant mortality.

“The study is hugely important for about 1.63 million reasons,” said Herman Taylor, an author of the study and director of the cardiovascular research institute at the Morehouse School of Medicine.

A companion study estimates that racial and ethnic inequities cost the U.S. at least $421 billion in 2018, based on medical expenses, lost productivity, and premature death.

“Real lives are being lost. Real families are missing parents and grandparents,” Taylor said. “Babies and their mothers are dying. We have been screaming this message for decades.”

High mortality rates among Black people have less to do with genetics than with the country’s long history of discrimination, which has undermined educational, housing, and job opportunities for generations of Black people, said Clyde Yancy, an author of the study and chief of cardiology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.

Black neighborhoods that were redlined in the 1930s—designated too “high risk” for mortgages and other investments—remain poorer and sicker today, Yancy said. Formerly redlined ZIP codes also had higher rates of covid infection and death. “It’s very clear that we have an uneven distribution of health,” Yancy said. “We’re talking about the freedom to be healthy.”

A companion study estimates that racial and ethnic inequities cost the U.S. at least $421 billion in 2018, based on medical expenses, lost productivity, and premature death.

In 2021, non-Hispanic white Americans had a life expectancy at birth of 76 years, while non-Hispanic Black Americans could expect to live only to 71. Much of that disparity is explained by the fact that non-Hispanic Black newborns are 2½ times as likely to die before their 1st birthdays as non-Hispanic whites. Non-Hispanic Black mothers are more than 3 times as likely as non-Hispanic white mothers to die from a pregnancy-related complication. (Hispanic people can be of any race or combination of races.)

Black people shoulder a great burden of grief, which can undermine their mental and physical health.

Racial disparities in health are so entrenched that even education and wealth don’t fully erase them, said Tonia Branche, a neonatal-perinatal medicine fellow at Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago who was not involved in the JAMA study.

Black women with a college degree are more likely to die from pregnancy complications than white women without a high school diploma. Although researchers can’t fully explain this disparity, Branche said it’s possible that stress, including from systemic racism, takes a greater toll on the health of Black mothers than previously recognized.

Death creates ripples of grief throughout communities. Research has found that every death leaves an average of nine people in mourning.

Black people shoulder a great burden of grief, which can undermine their mental and physical health, said Khaliah Johnson, chief of pediatric palliative care at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. Given the high mortality rates throughout the life span, Black people are more likely than white people to be grieving the death of a close family member at any point in their lives.

“We as Black people all have some legacy of unjust, unwarranted loss and death that compounds with each new loss,” said Johnson, who was not involved with the new study. “It affects not only how we move through the world, but how we live in relationship with others and how we endure future losses.”

Johnson’s parents lost two sons — one who died a few days after birth and another who died as a toddler. In an essay published last year, Johnson recalled, “My parents asked themselves on numerous occasions, ‘Would the outcomes for our sons have been different, might they have received different care and lived, had they not been Black?’”

Johnson said she hopes the new study gives people greater understanding of all that’s lost when Black people die prematurely. “When we lose these lives young, when we lose that potential, that has an impact on all of society,” she said.

She hears from families all over the world, and supporting them has helped heal her pain.

And in the Black community, “our pain is real and deep and profound, and it deserves attention and validation,” Johnson said. “It often feels like people just pass it over, telling you to stop complaining. But the expectation can’t be that we just endure these things and bounce back.”

Teleah Scott-Moore said she struggles with the death of her 16-year-old son, Timothy, an athlete who hoped to attend Boston College and study sports medicine. He died of sudden cardiac arrest in 2011, a rare condition that kills about 100 young athletes a year. Research shows that an underlying heart condition that can lead to sudden cardiac death, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, often goes unrecognized in Black patients.

Scott-Moore still wonders if she should have recognized warning signs. She also has blamed herself for failing to protect her two younger sons, who found Timothy’s body after he collapsed.

At times, Scott-Moore said, she wanted to give up.

Instead, she said, the family created a foundation to promote education and health screenings to prevent such deaths. She hears from families all over the world, and supporting them has helped heal her pain.

“My grief comes back in waves, it comes back when I least expect it,” said Scott-Moore, of Baltimore County, Maryland. “Life goes on, but it’s a pain that never goes away.”

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‘A stunning discovery’: Saturn’s moon Enceladus holds a key ingredient for life

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Ariana Bindman, SFGATE

June 15, 2023 (SFGate.com)

An artist's interpretation of jets of water venting from the surface of Saturn's moon Enceladus.
An artist’s interpretation of jets of water venting from the surface of Saturn’s moon Enceladus.MARK GARLICK/SPL/Getty Images/Science Photo Library

A crucial building block for life has been found in one of the galaxy’s most unlikely places. 

According to a recent study published on June 14 in the journal Nature, Enceladus — an icy moon orbiting Saturn — might contain an ocean full of phosphorus, an element that has never been detected on other planets before. The international team of researchers who spearheaded the paper used Cassini’s Cosmic Dust Analyzer, or CDA, to study Enceladus’ ice particles that drifted into Saturn’s luminous “E ring.” 

At first, the team’s geochemical modeling indicated that phosphate might be scarce, but more recent tests revealed that phosphate concentrations could be “at least 100-fold higher in the moon’s plume-forming ocean waters than in Earth’s oceans,” the study read. According to NASA, phosphorus is essential to our DNA and is often found in bones, cell membranes and plankton. The presence of this element also indicates that Enceladus might not be the only icy world harboring the potential to create life.   

“High phosphate concentrations are a result of interactions between carbonate-rich liquid water and rocky minerals on Enceladus’ ocean floor and may also occur on a number of other ocean worlds,” Southwest Research Institute planetary scientist and geochemist Christopher Glein told NASA. “This key ingredient could be abundant enough to potentially support life in Enceladus’ ocean; this is a stunning discovery for astrobiology.” 

For years, scientists have been mystified by this moon. In 2015, CDA researchers discovered that Enceladus produced a plume of water and spewed silica-rich rocks, suggesting that they came from a region with “hydrothermal activity.”

Regardless, scientists are still trying to understand what, exactly, this new discovery means. 

“Having the ingredients is necessary, but they may not be sufficient for an extraterrestrial environment to host life,” Glein continued. “Whether life could have originated in Enceladus’ ocean remains an open question.”

Written By Ariana Bindman

Ariana Bindman is the news features reporter at SFGATE. To submit tips, comments or cat videos, please reach out to her at ariana.bindman@sfgate.com.

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Harnessing the Power of Dream Incubation with Machiel Klerk

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New Thinking Allowed with Jeffrey Mishlove Jun 16, 2023 Machiel Klerk is a licensed mental health therapist, international speaker, dreamworker, and an initiated shamanic diviner. He is author of Dream Guidance: Connecting to the Soul Through Dream Incubation. He founded the Jung Platform, an organization that provides programs for personal development from a soul-centered perspective. Machiel is on the board of the International Society for Embodied Imagination. His website is MachielKlerk.com. Machiel describes how to receive guidance in your life and connect with passed loved ones and ancestors through dream incubation. 00:00:00 Introduction 00:01:39 Dreamworld 00:09:07 Intuition and ancestors 00:16:18 Dreaming across cultures 00:40:19 Remembering dreams 00:47:52 Precognitive dreams 00:58:50 Trusting dreams 01:00:05 Interpreting dreams 01:06:31 Awareness and love 01:09:56 Conclusion Edited subtitles for this video are available in Russian, Portuguese, Italian, German, French, and Spanish. New Thinking Allowed CoHost, Emmy Vadnais, OTR/L, is an intuitive healer and health coach based in St. Paul, Minnesota. She is the author of Intuitive Development: How to Trust Your Inner Knowing for Guidance With Relationships, Health, and Spirituality. Her website is https://emmyvadnais.com/ (Recorded on April 13, 2023)

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Weekly Invitational Translation Group

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Translation is a 5-step process of “straight thinking in the abstract.” The first step is an ontological statement of being beginning with the syllogism: “Truth is that which is so. That which is not truth is not so. Therefore Truth is all there is.” The second step is the sense testimony (what the senses tell us about anything). The third step is the argument between the absolute abstract nature of truth from the first step and the relative specific truth of experience from the second step. The fourth step is filtering out the conclusions you have arrived at in the third step. The fifth step is your overall conclusion.

The claims in a Translation may seem outrageous, but they are always (or should always) be based on self-evident syllogistic reasoning. Here is one Translation from this week.

1)    Truth is that which is so.  That which is not truth is not so.  Therefore Truth is all that is.  Truth being all is therefore total, therefore whole, therefore otherless, therefore one, therefore united, therefore harmonious, therefore infinite.  I think therefore I am.  Since I am and since Truth is all that is, therefore I am Truth.  Since I, being, am Truth, therefore I, being, am total, whole, otherless, one, united, harmonious, infinite. I, being Mind (Consciousness) and I, being Truth, therefore Truth is Mind (Consciousness).

2)    Room and board is my father’s responsibility, not mine.  My responsibility is to please my father, whether I want to or not.

Word-tracking:
perpetrate, to bring a out, to be responsible for
responsible:  despond, to promise away
promise:  mission, to vow
room and board:  necessities of living
please:  to appease, to accede demands, to give way, to yield

3)    Truth being all that is, there can be no source of being other than being, therefore being is the only source of being.  Truth being whole, cannot at the same time be needy, therefore the apparent necessities of Truth are always met.  Truth being all that is, there is no living outside of being, therefore Living is Being.  Truth being all that is, nothing, nobody is responsible for Truth other than Truth.  Therefore Truth is the only responsible party.  Truth being the only responsible party, the demands of Truth are always acceded by Truth OR Truth always please Itself.

4)    Being is the only source of being.
The apparent necessities of Truth are always met.
Living is Being.
Truth is the only responsible party.
The demands of Truth are always acceded by Truth.
Truth always please Itself.

5)   Truth makes its living by always joyfully yielding to Itself.

The Weekly Invitational Translation Group invites your participation as well.  If you would like to submit a Translation on any subject, feel free to send your weekly Translation to zonta1111@aol.com and we will anonymously post it on the Bathtub Bulletin on Friday.

For information about Translation or other Prosperos classes go to: https://www.theprosperos.org/teaching

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Book: “The Hidden History of American Democracy: Rediscovering Humanity’s Ancient Way of Living”

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The Hidden History of American Democracy: Rediscovering Humanity’s Ancient Way of Living

Thom Hartmann

America’s most popular progressive radio host and New York Times bestselling author Thom Hartmann paves the way to saving our democracy.

In this powerful, sweeping history and analysis of American democracy, Thom Hartmann shows how democracy is the one form of governance most likely to produce peace and happiness among people.

With the violent exception of the Civil War, American democracy resisted the pressure to disintegrate into factionalism for nearly two centuries, and now our very system of democratic elections is at stake. So how do we save our democracy?

Hartmann’s newest book in the celebrated Hidden History Series offers a clear call to action and a set of solutions with road maps for individuals and communities to follow to create a safer, more just society and a more equitable and prosperous economy.

(Goodreads.com)