At Long Last, Leadership!

But not from the Government... 

The Sun-Jupiter Opposition Meets the Mars-Saturn Conjunction...

Tuesday, July 8^th  through Thursday, July 10th, 2008

The G-8 Summit in Hokkaido, Japan draws the leaders of the world’s wealthiest industrialized nations together to confer with their counterparts in the developing world under the influence of the current Sun-Jupiter opposition. While this opposition certainly helps to bring these giants to the same table, in coming face-to-face, it seems the lines of opposition are all the more clearly drawn.  Every action of the G8 leaders will have its inevitable reaction, and detractors.

For instance, the grandiose but relatively toothless resolution on limiting greenhouse gas emissions which emerged today, or the pending sanctions against Robert Mugabe and his allies. Recent meetings between George W. Bush and the new Russian president, conducted under the same alignment, have only heightened the growing differences between the two nations, especially over US plans for a European missile defense system.

In an era of increasing economic uncertainty, with food, fuel and housing prices spiraling out of control for working people around the world, the glaring lack of determined leadership lies temporarily muted beneath the neutral shades of elegance in Hokkaido this week. As the band plays on, we should expect more style than substance when it comes to any of this week’s projected resolutions on food, fuel, and finance.  

It’s going to have to get worse before it gets better, but that’s not entirely bad news for anyone willing to take the lead.  Still, the Sun in opposition to Jupiter in Capricorn, traditionally Jupiter’s most restrictive and problematic sign, clearly illuminates the pitfalls, and the relative ideological poverty of this position.  We may have to wait until January 2009, when Jupiter enters the sign Aquarius, to experience any real grasp of the emerging issues, much less any real leadership.  

Mars is Closing in on a Conjunction with Saturn in Virgo

Thursday, July 10^th, 2008

Meanwhile as Mars moves closer to its impending conjunction with Saturn in Virgo, the calls for a timetable for withdrawing US troops from Iraq are mounting – only this time, the demand is coming from the Iraqis.  The Bush Administration already seems to be turning the same deaf ear to the Maliki government that it has long turned to the same demands from its own people.  

You can ignore the signs of the Mars-Saturn conjunction too, but at your peril.  These planetary influences resonate throughout every level of our experience, and the same conditions we see on display in the big picture play out through every level of our own lives, provided we have an eye to see.  So where do you need to cut back and get real? When is too much of a good thing too much?  It’s time to come home and get some real work done, and quit all that gadding about. Winter’s coming early this year.  You need to be putting in your stores already.  Saturn is in Virgo after all.

So Look Busy.

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At the Intersection of Science and Spirit:

We're all too familiar with the rigid, narrow materialism associated with modern science; or more aptly, modern scientism.  Too often, this mindset dominates the very vocal, and public debate over topics like genetic determinism and sociobiology. 

Pejorative term for the belief that the methods of natural science, or the categories and things recognized in natural science, form the only proper elements in any philosophical or other enquiry. The classic statement of scientism is the physicist E. Rutherford's saying ‘there is physics and there is stamp-collecting’. Philosophers wary of scientism believe that it distorts or denies the special methods of psychology and interpretation (see Verstehen), or tries to impose a crass reductionism where it is neither plausible nor necessary.

Wikipedia Definition: Scientism:

The term scientism can be used as a neutral term to describe the view that natural science has authority over all other interpretations of life, such as philosophical, religious, mythical, spiritual, or humanistic explanations, and over other fields of inquiry, such as the social sciences. It also can imply a criticism of a perceived misapplication or misuse of the authority of science in either of two directions:

1. The term is often used as a pejorative to indicate the improper usage of science or scientific claims. In this sense, the charge of scientism often is used as a counter-argument to appeals to scientific authority in contexts where science might not apply, such as when the topic is understood to be beyond the scope of scientific inquiry.
2. The term is also used to pejoratively refer to "the belief that the methods of natural science, or the categories and things recognized in natural science, form the only proper elements in any philosophical or other inquiry," with a concomitant "elimination of the psychological dimensions of experience".  It thus expresses a position critical of (at least the more extreme expressions of) positivism. (Compare: scientific imperialism.

In contrast, the work of Dr. Bruce Lipton, which explores the myriad interactions of consciousness and biology, or soul and cell, emerges as a refreshing antidote to the disempowering, deterministic materialism of proponents like Dawkins, etc. 

Below is a quote from Lipton's website, regarding his latest book, The Biology of Belief:

Insights into the Convergence of Science and Spirituality

"Until recently, conventional science has held that genes control life, a concept known as genetic determinism. While this disempowering belief is still held as truth by the mainstream public, leading edge research in the exciting new field of epigenetics reveals a completely different truth. Genes do not control life. It is the environment, and more specifically, our perception of the environment that controls gene activity. In the end, it comes down to a simple case of “mind over matter” in controlling the fate of our lives.

My research on cloned stem cells, initiated over forty years ago, revealed the mechanisms by which perceptions created in the mind control the lives and fate of the 50 trillion living cells that comprise our bodies. Thought processes cause the brain to release information-containing neurochemical and vibrational signals that are sent to the cells. Signals sent by the brain are translated into biological responses in the cell through the action of protein “perception” switches built into the cell’s skin (membrane). The membrane proteins that “read” and respond to these environmental signals are called receptors..."

To Read More:  

Bruce Lipton's Website

The Star of the Magi

The Mystery that Heralded the Coming of Christ
(Career Press/NewPage 2007)

New Light on the Star of Bethlehem…

The Star of Bethlehem is still one of the most popular and puzzling mysteries of the Bible. Its inclusion, at the very beginning of the very first Gospel, raises so many awkward questions for orthodox Christianity that one has to wonder how it ever made the canonical cut in the first place.

Visions of theVirgin Mary 

An Astrological Analysis of Divine Intercession  (Llewellyn, 2004)

Lourdes, Fatima, Medjugorje - millions of people of all faiths and nations flock to Marian shrines around the world; a testament to the enduring human desire for transcendence and meaning.  Visions of the "Luminous Lady in White" abound: at Zeitun, Egypt, she was witnessed by hundred of thousands of Jews, Muslims, and both Protestant and Orthodox Christians.  Courtney Roberts adds a new and fascinating dimension to these miraculous sightings, exploring them through the perspective of astrology. 

...The first of its kind to introduce the astrological dimension into comparative religious studies,Visions of the Virgin  delicately unravels the tangled skein of pre-Christian goddesses woven into the cults and legends of the Virgin Mary, and reflected in the stars, revealing a tradition of goddess worship still very much alive and well in contemporary Christianity. 

   For Reviews and more information:  

 http://www.courtneyrobertshome.com/visionsofthevirgin.htm

Any Questions, Comments, Suggestions?  Crcatcrc@Aol.com