Gulf Leak plugged, Wikileaks unplugged.

So many beautiful stories in the world, the beauty makes me cry as much as the devastation. I know some people had a strong condemnation toward our Women weeping by the water, but I can tell you a full blown emotional life with all it's,sorrows, pathos, slapstick, and absurdities makes this life so satisfying. I would love to see more and more people experience the fulfillment that I know regularly because of my connection to humanity, the earth and the cosmos. I believe one can be emotional and powerfully effective at the same time. It is the lack of emotion, or depression that tends to destroy our inner lives. I know a majority of you love to be touched, entertained, you love a good story and the juicier the better. Would you buy a ticket to a show that had no emotion, no dramatic arc, or are you more interested in a story, say that starts with utter hopelessness that by some twist of fate or will becomes a heroic triumph. And according to the signs I'm seeing, Yes, we are on the verge of a climax here. I'll be the first to admit that my latest editorials are fraught with deep dark emotions but at the same time A psychic once told me my rose colored glasses have rose colored clip ons there is a kind of optimism that always accompanies me.

I see great evidence of consciousness rising and that kind of behavior reflected. in current events. Today, the VA announced that Veterans have the right to use Marijuana to help deal with PTSD in 14 States where it is legal. Huge leap forward. Last week the front page of the Ashland Newspaper, Daily Tidings, told us Northwest airline hubs will be using biodiesel to fuel their airplanes. Exciting. New York opens it's first electric vehicle charging station while New Jersey mounts 200,000 solar panels on utility poles. Illegal timber trade has dropped %50 in the Amazon! The California legislature is poised to pass AB 1998, banning single-use plastic bags. Governor Schwarzenegger has said he'll sign it,Yeah! There was An article last week in the Press democrat about a significant increase in Vaginal births after C-section. I'm always inspired when I see positive news about vaginas in the newspaper. Tropical storm Bonnie spared Gulf residents a terrible beating and the cap on the bp oil leak is holding. Everyday people are coming up with creative solutions to clean up the gulf. And in other water news, Salmon returning to the columbia Snake river in record numbers. Then there's the case of Shirley Sherrod who was unjustly accused of Racism regarding her speech to the NAACP. the source of course for that nasty spin was fox news. This set off a chain of unfortunate events that led to her firing, but, then drum roll please, the President of the United States called her and apologized and offered her job back. Wow, can we take a moment. I remember reporter after reporter asking George Bush if he made any mistakes his answer was a standard and absolute No. But Barack Obama and his minions made a mistake and addressed it. If Ms. Sherrod accepts his apology and returns to her post at the USDA that would be an extraordinary lesson for America. To err is human. To forgive, divine. We are at this moment also being appraised of the Truth of the War in Iraq and Afghanistan through the eyes of Wikileaks. There are over 90,000 pages documenting extreme war crimes against innocent people. While that in itself is an undeniable horror, the outcome may surprise us. The footage is all over the internet and the newspaper and Robert Gibbs White house Spokesman has been fielding questions about it all day. We cannot live in denial of that facts, just the facts. and here they are all dressed up with everywhere to go. The light is shining in the darkest places. Thank you internet, thanks to the people who care enough to risk there lives, livelihoods, reputations to bring us inconvenient truths. How appropriate that Today We are in a full moon 3 degrees of Aquarius and according to it's Sabian symbol, another drum roll please is "A Deserter From the Navy: according to the website Lincoln's This and That Astrology, "This is a symbol of human independence carried to a point of extreme rebellion against things as they are, here emphasized in a disregard of all consequences for the sake of an immediate liberation of the spirit. There is a demand for a more rewarding expression of individuality, and the reversed symbolism suggests that any late acceptance of full and personal responsibility for life is better than none at all. Except as man creates his own allegiances, his destiny holds no depth. The keyword is defiance. When positive, the degree is genuine psychological courage in a repudiation of all meaningless loyalties, and when negative, complete inability to follow the rules of any game." After watching one of the leaked wikileaks on You Tube called Collateral Murders, Wiki leak, Iraq. I am even more emboldened to speak up, speak out. Act out. This universe is calling. We can respond, everyone of us with truth and beauty as Rob Brezny says on his www.freewillastrology.com website. I am in the process of gathering data and quickly turning my attention to the creation, to the symbolic as an offering to you as a gift. My job is to enlighten you, provoke you, engage you, inform you and turn you on to the marvelous possibilities that are offered to us everyday.

By The Light Of The Moon

So many beautiful stories in the world, the beauty makes me cry as much as the devastation. I know some people had a strong condemnation toward our Women weeping by the water, but I can tell you a full blown emotional life with all it's,sorrows, pathos, slapstick, and absurdities makes this life so satisfying. I would love to see more and more people experience the fulfillment that I know regularly because of my connection to humanity, the earth and the cosmos. I believe one can be emotional and powerfully effective at the same time. It is the lack of emotion, or depression that tends to destroy our inner lives. I know a majority of you love to be touched, entertained, you love a good story and the juicier the better. Would you buy a ticket to a show that had no emotion, no dramatic arc, or are you more interested in a story, say that starts with utter hopelessness that by some twist of fate or will becomes a heroic triumph. And according to the signs I'm seeing, Yes, we are on the verge of a climax here. I'll be the first to admit that my latest editorials are fraught with deep dark emotions but at the same time A psychic once told me my rose colored glasses have rose colored clip ons there is a kind of optimism that always accompanies me.

I see great evidence of consciousness rising and that kind of behavior reflected. in current events. Today, the VA announced that Veterans have the right to use Marijuana to help deal with PTSD in 14 States where it is legal. Huge leap forward. Last week the front page of the Ashland Newspaper, Daily Tidings, told us Northwest airline hubs will be using biodiesel to fuel their airplanes. Exciting. New York opens it's first electric vehicle charging station while New Jersey mounts 200,000 solar panels on utility poles. Illegal timber trade has dropped %50 in the Amazon! The California legislature is poised to pass AB 1998, banning single-use plastic bags. Governor Schwarzenegger has said he'll sign it,Yeah! There was An article last week in the Press democrat about a significant increase in Vaginal births after C-section. I'm always inspired when I see positive news about vaginas in the newspaper. Tropical storm Bonnie spared Gulf residents a terrible beating and the cap on the bp oil leak is holding. Everyday people are coming up with creative solutions to clean up the gulf. And in other water news, Salmon returning to the columbia Snake river in record numbers. Then there's the case of Shirley Sherrod who was unjustly accused of Racism regarding her speech to the NAACP. the source of course for that nasty spin was fox news. This set off a chain of unfortunate events that led to her firing, but, then drum roll please, the President of the United States called her and apologized and offered her job back. Wow, can we take a moment. I remember reporter after reporter asking George Bush if he made any mistakes his answer was a standard and absolute No. But Barack Obama and his minions made a mistake and addressed it. If Ms. Sherrod accepts his apology and returns to her post at the USDA that would be an extraordinary lesson for America. To err is human. To forgive, divine. We are at this moment also being appraised of the Truth of the War in Iraq and Afghanistan through the eyes of Wikileaks. There are over 90,000 pages documenting extreme war crimes against innocent people. While that in itself is an undeniable horror, the outcome may surprise us. The footage is all over the internet and the newspaper and Robert Gibbs White house Spokesman has been fielding questions about it all day. We cannot live in denial of that facts, just the facts. and here they are all dressed up with everywhere to go. The light is shining in the darkest places. Thank you internet, thanks to the people who care enough to risk there lives, livelihoods, reputations to bring us inconvenient truths. How appropriate that Today We are in a full moon 3 degrees of Aquarius and according to it's Sabian symbol, another drum roll please is "A Deserter From the Navy: according to the website Lincoln's This and That Astrology, "This is a symbol of human independence carried to a point of extreme rebellion against things as they are, here emphasized in a disregard of all consequences for the sake of an immediate liberation of the spirit. There is a demand for a more rewarding expression of individuality, and the reversed symbolism suggests that any late acceptance of full and personal responsibility for life is better than none at all. Except as man creates his own allegiances, his destiny holds no depth. The keyword is defiance. When positive, the degree is genuine psychological courage in a repudiation of all meaningless loyalties, and when negative, complete inability to follow the rules of any game." After watching one of the leaked wikileaks on You Tube called Collateral Murders, Wiki leak, Iraq. I am even more emboldened to speak up, speak out. Act out. This universe is calling. We can respond, everyone of us with truth and beauty as Rob Brezny says on his Real Astrology website. I am in the process of gathering data and quickly turning my attention to the creation, to the symbolic as an offering to you as a gift. My job is to enlighten you, provoke you, engage you, inform you and turn you on to the marvelous possibilities that are offered to us everyday.

All The World's A Stage

A playwright is like God. She looks down on her world sets the scene, populates it, plots it decides it's outcome. If it ends with a wedding, it's a comedy, If it ends with a funeral, it's a tragedy. She or He gives us a passport to a new world, exotic, mundane, impossible, beautiful and sometimes very very ugly, just like life, only at the theater we are the audience and that makes it more comfortable.

We have just had the privilege of attending the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland. We did not get tickets to one of the Bard's classics , 12th Night, or the Merchant of Venice, playing in honor of the Festivals 75th anniversary. No, Honestly I am not a fan of Shakespeare I respect the man greatly, but it's too much work for me. I liked The film Shakespeare In Love more than I liked Romeo and Juliet. It's hard to admit that, but it's the truth. We stayed on the fringe of the Festival and we were lucky to see the World Premiere of American Night, a collaborative creation by the legendary socio-political comedy team known as, Culture Clash . In it, We follow, or maybe chase would be a better verb, the story of a young Mexican father, Juan Jose, separated from his Wife and new baby, still in Mexico, while he jumps through hoops of hope and prepares himself for the exam to become an American Citizen. Set against a simple steel backdrop, first graffiti'd with the phrase, "Borders are scars on the Land", in Spanish Juan Jose's journey begins with his trek across the dessert as the Projector screen shows us how Juan walked to America. We catch up with Juan Jose' the night before his exam, cheered on by his two new Mormon friends hoping that he not only switches countries, but deities as well, to help them spread the good word to his gente latino. This is just one minor, yet sharp note in this brilliant Operatic Comedy that takes us on a fantastic journey to the center of American History through the dream state of our Hero Juan Jose'. This play, a by product of over thirty years of collaboration between richard Montoya, Herbert Siguenza, who also star, and Ric Salinas of Culture Clash, think Latino Mime Troupe, In American Night we are given a thorough History lesson, peppered with pernicious pop culture, beginning at the end of the Mexican American war and the Signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hildago where upon doing so Mexico surrenders lands from California, New Mexico, Arizona and Texas. In his dream, as the signature on the treaty, Juan Jose makes himself a fugitive in what just five minutes ago was HIS country The irony starts there and does not stop as Juan travels through the time line as if on a skate board through the ages pausing only to mark undocumented moments in history that give a more diverse sense of who we are as Americans like, Viola Pettus the Black Florence Nightengale of Texas, who in the days of the Spanish Influenza even treated KKK members , deftly delivering the notion that there are good people in the world even if they don't make history. And even though our country is fraught with racism with the modern likes of Sherif Joe Arpaio and Governor Jan Brewer and divisions that linger from the original buying, selling, and stealing of American, this is still a place where dreams can come true. The metaphor of the dream of Juan Jose, conjures the current day, Dream Act, that would give undocumented immigrants a new lease on life. May it be so. Then Last night we attended, in the same theater, miraculously transformed into the Congolese Jungle. a chilling thrilling work of Pulitzer winning playwright, Lynn Nottage, called Ruined. This Play harkens to Brecht's Mother Courage, yet is set in Present day Congo, where Coltan ( a main ingredient in our precious cell phones) is the new Gold and Soldiers and Rebels Kill and Maim with impunity to control the resources and extract revenge for the taking of their indigenous lands. We are at Mama Nadi's place deep in Jungle Land. She provides a refuge for girls, young women who must flee their villages for their fate is sealed. They will be killed or worse they will be raped in such violent sadistic ways that their bodies are ruined for life. Mami offers them her protection, but at the same time they are for sale to soldiers who come to drink the beer and eat the maboke. Though this work is deeply disturbing, painful to witness for 2 and one half hours, it penetrates the audience, completely. The story revolves around Mami and three women who are under her wing. Sophie, Ruined at the edge of a soldiers Bayonet, Salima, who's body was not only ruined by soldiers the day her husband went to buy her a much wanted new pot, but her baby, Beatriz, is killed under a soldiers boot, and Josephine, once a chief's daughter,now a beautiful play toy for hungry ugly men. Kimberly Scott, who was also a member of American nights ensemble, portrays Mami Nadi with enormous courage, presence, and moral ambiguity, yet exudes an unflinching strength in the art of survival. She is a huge presence on the stage, tending her bar, unabashedly catering to the militia men, at the same time aptly feathering her own jungle nest. the arc of this character is so strong we know that life will go on, no matter what. I am heartened when not only am I in tears at the end of the play, but I see men crying as well. Especially regarding this subject matter and the brilliant thing is, though we witness the terrifying irrational, chaos of men with guns and unintelligible conflicts that change from day to day, somehow, out of this endless quagmire the playwright shows us human beings are ultimately resilient, alive and willing to love. that's the thing of life, which art imitates or vice a versa, if one can find humor and love then it's worth the trouble. We can sustain ourselves not only through our own testimonies, but in the theater we bare witness, and safe in the audience we can experience lives we can only imagine, or couldn't possibly. It is good to remember in these unpredictable, somewhat unbearable times that this is just a story we live in and everyday we turn the page. I invite you to become the playwright, director and Actor in this life. I guess Shakespeare said it best in As You Like it, "All the World's a stage"

Total Eclipse of the The Sun

The Tides they are a Turning

A small group of us held a sacred ritual on Big River Beach Sunday, July 11th at the same time of the total solar eclipse. Only visible in the Chile, Argentina and Peru, the moon blocked the sun for a time and certainly appeared more powerful than the sky king. How symbolic! Now some might say, a solar eclipse? So what? As if to suggest that universal, cosmic events are unimportant, folderol, and fiddle-de-dee.

It seems a bit arrogant to me to think the intelligent design, the precise chemistry and balance of the universe, our perfect solar system, which affords us life on earth has no influence in our oh so very important existence. Many of the rulers of the past related themselves to the Sun. The patriarchy claims the sky as it's domain; think, "our father who art in heaven." The most obvious connotation is that when a boy child is born he of course is the "son". Well, being a lover of linguistics and divine metaphors, as you know I am. I must act accordingly.

In acknowledging the metaphor of the feminine moon eclipsing the masculine sun, we give credence to idea that using ritual, in tune with the forces of nature, will bring radical change, challenging the patriarchal rule of that has dominated our planet for thousands of years. As the moon eclipsed the sun, the new moon went into Cancer.

Some say astrology and numerology is a bunch of hooey, but when I reflect on the calendar and recent catastrophic events like the invasion of Iraq on the eve Spring equinox in 2003, or the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon on 4/20, I think there is a method to the madness. 911 certainly has, and always will have, enormous numerical significance. So, on 7/11 (connotation noted), we hitched a ritual of weeping and wailing to a truly physical phenomenon in our cosmological cycle. The act of doing so gives us context for the arc of our revolution, which is a movement to find balance on planet earth.

The sign of Cancer is about home. Women have a traditional connection to the moon. It is ancient and aligns us with nature's rhythms as we experience our menstrual cycle. In fact, some women indicate they are bleeding by saying they are on their "moon" or "moon-struating." Maybe you've heard of the moon hut, a term referring the place where women retreat to use the power of their cycle to dream, to prophesize, to nurture and refresh themselves.

The tides rule us all, yet as women, our wombs, like the sea, are the environment for life to come to fruition. Humans are undeniably ruled by water because we are full of it. Our bodies are over 60% water. We are all deeply involved in that way. No one can deny it. It is time to raise the feminine "yin" dark, watery presence to her rightful position. Really-- what else on earth are we supposed to do to address these overwhelming crises? Well, for one thing, having a good cry is the first step toward our own well being. Sorrow is a natural response to the dire circumstances of war and oil disasters that humanity and our other living relatives are facing.

So our circle of women had a good cry, in reverence, in grief, and in awe, as we stood in the presence of our Mendocino Coast's precious green, healthy, mystical, living, giving ocean. Our salt tears filled to the brim with pain, compassion, remorse, gratitude, as we called out "We hear you." We hear Our Mother calling out. We hear dolphins, whales, turtles, krill, and coral beds. We feel their suffering, in our wombs, and in our bloodstreams, and we hear the call. Our friend, Lisa Denning, whose underwater film exhibit, Ocean, came to Oddfellow’s Hall this weekend, provided us with a truly intimate chance to see, and virtually swim, with the dolphins she filmed off the coast of Oahu.

We discussed the tragedy of the Gulf Oil Leak. Lisa said that dolphins are highly intelligent species, and they are mostly evacuating the premises, but there are those pods that are sacrificing themselves. They are swimming through the oil plumes to make a stand, to reach out to us, to see if we notice, if we react. If we change. We have no one to answer to but them. And we did.

In closing the ritual, our circle of women stood on the sand at the edge of the water. One of our sisters said, "The tides are turning." And sure enough, as she uttered her prayer intention, the tide instantly turned. We all got our feet wet and we had to laugh. Such is the nature of things. I then took out a bottle of essential oil in a blend called Hope. I dripped one drop of hope in the ocean and it rippled into the waves. That vibration touched every molecule in our oceans and resonated in our bodies. Believe it or not, it's all the same water. If there's anything that makes us one, it's water. Holy water, blessed water, sacred water.

10 Ways to Wean yourself From Oil

10 ways to wean ourselves from oil.

1. Make a Vow to refuse any extra plastic, whether it be bag of fork or cup or spoon. Say no thanks. Bring your own bag and that’s final.

2. Work to Outlaw Plastic bags in your neighborhood city or town

3. Do not buy water anymore. If you have to, do in the largest Bulk concentration you can. No more little bottles!

4. Write to companies that package things you like to buy encourage them to stop using so many tiny plastic bags for each component of the item. If they must do so, there are alternative wraps, some are made from soy bean.

5. Discourage manufacturing, Do your best to recycle, pass on everything and any thing. Learn how to fix stuff.

6. Work to legalize growing industrial Hemp as an alternative to fuel and plastic. Demand that your government listen!

7. Find alternative transportation. Use your car as little as possible, hardly at all unless you are using and electric car or Biodiesel

8. Tell others what you are doing

9. Put on solar panels, windmills, water mills,

10. Plant a garden and eat from it.

This disaster of plastic and oil will not be solved by these things alone, but it's a good start toward real independence and ingenuity.