The Astrology Podcast • Apr 1, 2025 • Monthly Astrology ForecastsA look at the astrological forecast for April 2025, and discussing news and events from the past month through the lens of astrology, with astrologers Chris Brennan and Austin Coppock. April will see the continuation and eventual conclusion of many of the alignments that started in March, with the effective range of the Aries eclipse extending through the first week or so, and then Mercury and Venus wrapping up their retrograde cycles and stationing direct in the second week of April. The second half of the month becomes intense when Mars moves into Leo and forms an opposition with Pluto, with that energy peaking around the fourth week of the month. We spend the first 90 minutes of the episode talking about the astrology of news and events that have occurred since our last forecast, and then in the second half we transition into talking about the astrology of April. This is episode 484 of The Astrology Podcast. Timestamps00:00:00 Introduction 00:01:02 Quick April overview 00:04:04 News segment begins 01:21:26 NORWAC 2025 01:25:39 LA Astro Fest 01:27:32 April forecast begins 02:29:33 Wrapping up 02:44:39 Credits
Parents Gently Explain To Child That Their Money In Heaven Now
Published: April 4, 2025 (TheOnion.com)
HUNTSVILLE, AL—In an effort to comfort the child by telling her the funds had gone to a far better place, local parents Blake and Allison McKee gently explained to their daughter Friday that their money was in heaven now, sources confirmed. “Honey, the reason we’re sitting you down today is because even though our life savings isn’t with us anymore, you don’t need to be scared, because it’s now up in the sky where the angels live,” said Allison McKee, putting her arms around a sobbing 10-year-old Harper McKee and assuring her that while their wealth wasn’t coming back, it was smiling down on them from the clouds. “I know you loved the money very much. Daddy and I did, too. But don’t worry, your college fund had some really good years. Now it gets to enjoy its everlasting reward. Shh, shh. It’s okay, kiddo. Hey, I know. Whenever you start missing our sweet little nest egg, just try to remember all the good times we had being middle class.” At press time, the mother was reportedly attempting to console her heartbroken daughter by stressing that this was all part of the natural stock market cycle.
How Teatime and Cartoons Changed the World
NONFICTION
In “The Revolutionary Self,” the historian Lynn Hunt explores the way 18th-century culture transformed our sense of power in the world.
“Two Ladies and an Officer Seated at Tea,” possibly English in origin, circa 1715.Credit…Victoria & Albert Museum, via Bridgeman Images
By Marjoleine Kars
Marjoleine Kars is the author of “Blood on the River: A Chronicle of Mutiny and Freedom on the Wild Coast.”
- Feb. 19, 2025 (NYTimes.com)
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THE REVOLUTIONARY SELF: Social Change and the Emergence of the Modern Individual, 1770-1800, by Lynn Hunt
“Over the course of the 1700s,” Lynn Hunt writes in the opening of “The Revolutionary Self,” her study of the rise of modern individualism, “people in Europe and British North America came to have a happier view of human prospects.” The rosier perspective came from the perception that human beings, to varying degrees, could shape their own lives. Meanwhile, major political and social upheavals led to an understanding of society as a distinct entity with its own logic.
The simultaneous discoveries of the individual and society created, Hunt argues, a paradox. At the very moment that growing secularization was overtaking the idea of original sin, people also began to see themselves as molded, however subtly, by social forces like race, class and sexuality, “all the markers,” she writes, “given value by modern bureaucracies.” What helped people ditch a community based in divine order for one where free will and social determinism locked horns? The French Revolution.
Hunt, a distinguished professor of European history and an expert in the French Revolution, is clear that the concepts she wants to explore are not easily captured. The notion of society is particularly “nebulous,” she admits. But she grounds these abstract forces in the minutiae of cultural practice as she moves through a wide range of subjects, from soldiering and teatime to Scottish armchair travelers and French political cartoons. In passing, we get a close look at how revolution impacts daily life.
Hunt starts by tracing new ways of thinking about society in Britain, where in the 18th century travel writing was all the rage. Eyewitness accounts knocked readers “off kilter” yet reaffirmed their sense of European superiority. John Locke, for instance, marveled at reports suggesting that Indigenous Americans had no notion of money.
Such dispatches did provoke some searching reflections, and Europeans began to consider their own social orders in a fresh light. Scottish thinkers in particular, among them Adam Smith’s disciple John Millar, argued that human development proceeded in stages and could be measured by women’s status — a radical idea at the time. In refined societies, Millar observed, men and women ate and talked together, which made female literacy desirable. Hunt suggests that tea drinking, a habit of British elites that finally reached the masses in the 18th century, may have encouraged such ideas. While coffeehouses were the domain of men, at home tea parties prompted men and women to converse as equals. Tragically, Hunt notes, the same global commodity that may have helped liberate British women did the opposite for West Africans, who endured the Middle Passage in ever larger numbers to work as slaves in the Caribbean sugar fields and sweeten English tea.
In France, the dynamic between society and the individual played out in the pamphlets and prints that proliferated during the revolution. Caricatures mocking nobles and the clergy encouraged people to rethink their social relationships. Thanks to lax censorship, thousands of these painted prints were published, and theatergoers in 1790s Paris could also choose from among two dozen performances a day. Political cartoons and plays enabled people, especially those who could not read, to assess the astounding changes taking place around them. Contemporary pundits applauded or bemoaned how visual culture undermined the ancien régime (itself a new term) by turning it into an easily accessible object of study and scorn.
The artists who helped make society visible also gained power in the process. Take Marie-Gabrielle Capet, a female painter of modest background who worked in the Parisian studio of a well-connected husband-and-wife team. Like most women artists, Capet painted portraits and miniatures. She began exhibiting in the 1780s and, over three tumultuous decades, she deftly adapted to a dizzying succession of fashion trends. Hunt elaborates on the political significance of choices such as wearing muslin or sporting a Titus haircut (the first short hairstyle for men and women in France) to show how Capet’s art reflected and shaped rapid social shifts. Capet’s depictions of female artists, including herself, underscored women’s individuality and greater equality.
The French Revolution reformed the lives not only of civilians but of soldiers as well. While fighting the French Revolutionary wars against other European nations, the armed forces dealt with daunting challenges: inadequate food, too few guns and tents, and expectations of democracy and equality that tested discipline and loyalty. Still, patriotic fervor, pluck and innovative tactics made the revolutionary army surprisingly successful. A new officer corps developed, made up of the sons of farmers, coopers and innkeepers, who, short on experience but long on daring, advanced rapidly.
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The career of Napoleon Bonaparte, a young upstart, personified the new reliance on personal ambition and, ironically, his dictatorship was a made possible by the liberalizing military reforms that enabled his ascent. The new military individual, Hunt suggests, was caught between autonomy and collectivity. “Ordinary soldiers could achieve previously unimaginable advancement through the exercise of their individual initiatives, but their newfound allegiance to the nation and to their charismatic superiors also facilitated their acceptance of an increasingly dictatorial authority.”
Soldiering in the age of revolution wasn’t the only vehicle for individuals to have some influence over their own lives. Public finance changed everyone’s relationship to the state and society. Hunt’s guide through the thicket is a double-faced Genevan financier, Étienne Clavière, who admired the American Republic, opposed slavery and believed in the positive power of commerce. Arriving in France in 1784, he pushed to convert the crown’s debt into one held by society through assignats, or bonds, that functioned as paper money. In the early 1790s, Clavière became minister of finance, but his visionary proposals for putting the country’s finances on a sound and transparent footing, many of which were eventually adopted, ran afoul of revolutionaries who distrusted him. Imprisoned, he killed himself in 1793 to escape the guillotine.
Hunt investigates an important moment in the history of the individual and society. I wish she had included more details about the French Revolution — readers less familiar with this watershed event may get lost. Yet her book comes at an opportune time, reminding us that seemingly small new habits, whether drinking tea or befriending Chatbots, can lead to revolutions in our sense of self — changes whose full magnitude we may not understand until we have already transformed.
THE REVOLUTIONARY SELF: Social Change and the Emergence of the Modern Individual, 1770-1800 | By Lynn Hunt | Norton | 199 pp. | $35
A version of this article appears in print on March 23, 2025, Page 16 of the Sunday Book Review with the headline: Tea and Sympathy. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
(Contributed by Michael Kelly, H.W.)
Two from Rick Tarnas
ASTROLOGY HUB Podcast • Nov 27, 2024 • THE ASTROLOGY HUB PODCASTIn this episode of the Astrology Hub Podcast, Amanda Pua Walsh sits down with renowned astrologer, author, and philosopher Richard Tarnas. Known for his groundbreaking works, The Passion of the Western Mind and Cosmos and Psyche, Rick shares insights on astrology’s gifts and challenges, its role in shaping individual and collective understanding, and its future amid technological advancements. This intimate conversation highlights his profound wisdom and humility, offering listeners a glimpse into his unique approach to astrology and life.
Jupiter-Uranus Conjunctions in History, with Richard Tarnas
The Astrology Podcast • Apr 21, 2024 • Discussing conjunctions between the planets Jupiter and Uranus in astrology, and the major events these alignments have coincided with in history, with astrologers Richard Tarnas and Chris Brennan. Jupiter and Uranus form a conjunction in the sky every 14 years, and since this year the two aligned on April 20, I thought it would be good to look back to see what types of events occurred around the time of these conjunctions in the past. Richard dedicated several chapters of his 2006 book Cosmos and Psyche to exploring Jupiter-Uranus alignments in history, and he showed that they often coincide with periods sudden advancements in technology, scientific breakthroughs, and political revolutions. In the first part of the episode we talk about the meanings of Jupiter, Uranus, and their conjunctions, and then in the second half we get into talking about what happened under specific alignments. Some of the events we cover include the Apollo 11 Moon landing, the American and French revolutions, and the discoveries of Kepler and Galileo. This is episode 444 of The Astrology Podcast:
Scientists Found a 12,000-Year-Old Monument—Turns Out It May Be Humanity’s Oldest Calendar
But just how, exactly, did it track time?
BY TIM NEWCOMB
PUBLISHED: APR 05, 2025 (popularmechanics.com)
Chris McGrath//Getty Images
- Carvings on a 12,000-year-old monument in Turkey appear to mark solar days and years, making it possibly the oldest solar calendar in ancient civilization.
- Marking a massive comet strike as the start, inhabitants used symbols to record every astronomical event, including those as small as single days.
- The summer solstice was called out on the monument as a special day.
An ancient monument discovered in Turkey may just be an ancient monument. But, if its markings are what experts think they are, it might be the world’s oldest solar calendar.
In a study published in Time and Mind based on the work of researchers from the University of Edinburgh, experts write that markings at Göbekli Tepe in southern Turkey, a temple-like archaeological complex filled with intricately carved symbols, indicate the makings of a solar calendar that tracks days, seasons, and years.
By analyzing the symbols carved onto pillars, the team believes that every “V” could represent a single day, given that one pillar featured 365 days. And among those, the summer solstice in particular was highlighted with a V worn around the neck of a bird-like beast meant to represent the summer solstice constellation during that time. The calendar explanation could help explain why the V symbol appears on so many other nearby statues of deities linked to time and creation, with the V almost always showing up around their neck.
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The calendar’s preoccupation with day, night, and seasonal changes may have sparked anew with a world-changing comet strike, one that experts believed occurred in roughly 10,850 B.C. and helped contribute to a mini-ice age that eliminated numerous species.
“It appears the inhabitants of Gobekli Tepe were keen observers of the sky,” Martin Sweatman, lead study researcher from the University of Edinburgh’s School of Engineering, said in a statement. “Which is to be expected given their world had been devastated by a comet strike. The event might have triggered civilization by initiating a new religion and by motivating developments in agriculture to cope with the cold climate. Possibly, their attempts to record what they saw are the first steps toward the development of writing millennia later.”
The carvings also track cycles for both the Moon and the Sun, which pre-date other calendar finds of this type by “many millennia,” the group wrote. By tracking the movements of meteors and the Earth, the ancient research may have also shown for the first time that comet strikes happen more when Earth’s orbit crosses the path of circling comet fragments, something modern-day researchers have proven.
To help support this theory, the team points to another pillar at the site appearing to picture the Taurid meteor stream lasting 27 days, which was quite possibly the source of the ancient comet strike.
The researchers believe that the temple carvings show the ancient civilization was recording dates precisely, noting how the movement of constellations across the sky differed based on the time of the year. This would be 10,000 years before Hipparchus of ancient Greece documented the wobble in the Earth’s axis in 150 BC, making this newfound calendar well ahead of its time.
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JOURNALIST
Tim Newcomb is a journalist based in the Pacific Northwest. He covers stadiums, sneakers, gear, infrastructure, and more for a variety of publications, including Popular Mechanics. His favorite interviews have included sit-downs with Roger Federer in Switzerland, Kobe Bryant in Los Angeles, and Tinker Hatfield in Portland.
John Adams on making room for art and architecture
“The science of government it is my duty to study, more than all other sciences; the arts of legislation and administration and negotiation ought to take the place of, indeed exclude, in a manner, all other arts. I must study politics and war, that our sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. Our sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history and naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry and porcelain.”
― John Adams, Letters of John Adams, Addressed to His Wife
(Goodreads.com — inspired by Gwyllm Llwydd)
John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American Founding Father who was the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before his presidency, he was a leader of the American Revolution that achieved independence from Great Britain. Wikipedia
The Theory of Psychic Unity with Marilyn Schlitz
New Thinking Apr 4, 2025 Archival Video RecordingsThis video is a special release from the original Thinking Allowed series that ran on public television from 1986 until 2002. It was recorded in about 1991. It will remain public for only one week. Marilyn Schlitz, PhD, has conducted clinical, laboratory and field-based research into consciousness, human transformation, and healing. Her books include Living Deeply: The Art and Science of Transformation in Everyday Life; Consciousness and Healing: Integral Approaches to Mind Body Medicine; and Death Makes Life Possible (and companion film by same title). Having taught at Stanford, Harvard, and Trinity University, she is currently Professor of Transpersonal Psychology at Sofia University, CEO/President Emeritus and Senior Fellow at the Institute of Noetic Sciences. Now you can watch all of the programs from the original Thinking Allowed Video Collection, hosted by Jeffrey Mishlove. Subscribe to the new Streaming Channel (https://thinkingallowed.vhx.tv/) and watch more than 350 programs now, with more, previously unreleased titles added weekly. Free month of the classic Thinking Allowed streaming channel for New Thinking Allowed subscribers only. Use code THINKFREELY.
Next Salon Calvin happens on May 30
Aloha,
In May Salon Calvin brings another presentation of the master storyteller William Shakespeare’s play’s – Othello
This Storytelling draws from an odyssey of the protagonist’s path into lies, deception, and destruction. It always begs to ask a question or point a finger at an issue or answer that may not be apparent to its audience until it is pointed out. Storytelling is one of the most effective ways to connect with people’s hearts and minds.
The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice, is a tragedy Set in Venice and Cyprus, the play depicts the Moorish military commander Othello as he is manipulated by his ensign, Iago, into suspecting his wife Desdemona of infidelity, with fatal consequences.
Join us for an evening of video and conversation like no other
Coming May 30th, 2025
Word-Built World: windmill
Don Quixote attacking a windmill believing it to be a ferocious giant
Illustration: Gustave Doré, 1863
A.Word.A.Daywith Anu Garg
windmill
PRONUNCIATION:
MEANING:
| noun: | 1. A machine powered by wind. |
| 2. An imagined enemy, opponent, or threat. | |
| verb tr., intr.: | To move or to cause to move like a windmill. |
ETYMOLOGY:
From wind, from Old English wind + mill, from Old English mylen, from Latin mola (grindstone, mill), from molere (to grind). Earliest documented use: 1230.]
NOTES:
The metaphorical sense of windmill comes spinning out of Cervantes’ Don Quixote, in which our deluded hero mistakes windmills for towering foes and launches a one-man attack against renewable energy.
To tilt at windmills now means to battle imaginary enemies. It’s an expression that reminds us: sometimes the real enemy isn’t the windmill — it’s the wind between our ears.
Cassiopeia A
This is a false colour image of Cassiopeia A (Cas A), a supernova remnant from an explosion about 11,000 light years away and about 340 years ago from Earth’s perspective. As the material in the remnant expands and cools, it will become indistinguishable from the interstellar medium. (from New Thinking Allowed)