THE DAILY TRAVESTY | 4th Festival, Planet Waves
THE DAILY TRAVESTY for February 18, 2000
    Volume 1, Issue 34
 
The Travesty Online: www.angelfire.com/zine/dailytravesty
Email: bcphillips@chesapeake.net
 
 
At the time of the fourth festival,
The night sky is cold and clear, brilliant and dry.
This is when we become what we are,
We are light beings, just like stars,
The stars where we came from long ago.
 
Those who are ready--the ones who have
Journeyed through the caves to dark places
The ones who moved the souls to the next realm--
They come forward like marathon runners,
Strengthened for their journey...
 
No one speaks during this festival, and
No one who journeys speaks when they return...
 
We do not know where we went, but
After we return, we know where we are going.
The journey to the stars defines for all of us
Our place in the universe
And the quietest place in our hearts.
 
                    Barbara Hand-Clow/Aspasia
 
++
 
From Chuck Shephard's NEWS OF THE WEIRD
 
Born-again Christian David Strein, 44, announced in November that he would appeal his 1998 dismissal from a New Mexico state government job for misusing his computer because he was actually powerless to stay away from Internet pornography. Strein contended that after he first discovered online porn, "Satan told me to check it out some more." Also, said Strein, once at a porn site, he was trapped on a virtually endless loop of sex sites that had taken over his computer. (The administrative law judge had ruled that Strein had visited too many sites and given them his credit-card number too many times to have been blameless.)
 

PLANET WAVES for the week of February 18, 2000
by Eric Francis 
 
ARIES (March 21-April 19)
The operative cycle is two years. Consider your life in early March 1998. What was happening in your inner realities and the world of your relationships? Changes you embarked on then are likely to be coming to some kind of crux point now, or, at least, all the loose ends from those far-off, nearby days are right where you can see them and snip them nicely. What's available to you now is something much wider, a point of contact with the world that promises many opportunities to spread your wings, to speak to a larger audience and to relate your ideas in ways that are less practical and more poetic. Poetic would work well, conveying your message in much more subtle tones and colors.


TAURUS (April 20-May 20)
Long-delayed ambitions are right within sight, though if you canıt see them, then look in some other direction, or better still, maintain watch on all directions. You will not need to grasp or push to make your desires develop; a process of unfoldment, combined with vigilance, would yield the best results at this point, and small delays will probably prove to be helpful by making you mindful of options you had not considered. Indeed, what you see now will only get better, though there may come moments when you have to opt for one opportunity and out of another. But remember this, perhaps write it on your desk: the choice will be obvious. Thatıs how youıll know itıs real.


GEMINI (May 21-June 20)
Make sure people are prepared to keep their promises to you, especially where professional matters are concerned. And make sure you can keep your commitments; indeed, every move you make would best be aimed at fulfilling that to which you have already committed, and not taking on any new burdens or projects for about another month. Use that time to plan and consider your options, and, to the greatest extent possible, to retreat. It would be wise to pull yourself out of the spotlight, principally to avoid misunderstandings about what you are really saying, doing, creating or intending. You have plenty to do and think through without getting other people and their opinions involved.


CANCER (June 21-July 22)
These days, most people who work with mystical ideas would consider themselves to be spiritual rather than religious. It was Planet Waves writer Christopher Grosso who clued me into the idea that religion is, in truth, about forming a conscious reconnection between the idea of human and that of the divine, from the Latin root "ligios," to connect, as in the English word "ligament." Most of what we strive for is a sense of reconnection of something that was lost, rather than experiencing that which already is. Which is your practice or belief? Is it effective for you? Coming shifts in consciousness and in your relationship to what some traditions call your Higher Power will be centered on just such questions.


LEO (July 23-Aug. 22)
The laws of give and take are all being recreated in your life now. Itıs not going to happen quickly, and I doubt it will be simple -- but it will be easier if you focus on the question at hand: what mediates the balance of power and of exchange in your relationships? Is it a sense of need, or is it a sense of plenty? Do you really go into your relationships with a tangible idea of what you have to offer, or do you go in feeling a lack that you hope will be compensated for in the meeting? How, especially, would this work once both sex and money enter the same relationship? You are less needy than you think. You have far more going for you than youıve dared to imagine.


VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sep. 22)
If you spend most of your time listening for the next few weeks, but particularly for the next few days, youıll get enough information to work with regarding several close personal relationships, and indeed, all facets of communication. Mercury going retrograde in your opposite sign Pisces is enough to make any astrologer light up a big SLIPPERY WHEN WET sign outside their office. But much as you may feel that itıs everyone else who is being slippery, you are the real fish these weeks, so perk up your little fishy ears, figure out where people are coming from, and give them just the information they need to be wildly successful without involving you any more than is necessary.

LIBRA (Sep. 23-Oct. 22)
Lots of Libra horoscopes these weeks are likely to begin with the phrase, "Colleagues and coworkers..." but let me finish the sentence: Colleagues and coworkers will very likely behave in utterly incomprehensible ways. The important thing is to maintain a sense of humor. Donıt forget to laugh when people say bizarre-o things to you, make claims they could never substantiate or show up at work obsessed with the fact that the Earth is flat or reporting having had several alien abductions over the weekend. Well, who knows, maybe they really did spend time on the mothership. In any event, this is a fine time to practice the ancient wisdom, "If you want a job done right, do it yourself."

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 22)
I doubt youıll have any problem being a master of illusion during the very interesting Mercury retrograde phase ahead. I would be tempted to warn you not to become a master of delusion, but in fact, you seem to be unerringly beamed into the frequency of necessity and bottom-line reality quite adequately enough to ensure that your perceptions of the world are dependably real, even as so much around you slides, warps, bends and bubbles. And let it all bubble and slide until you find you have to take a no-nonsense approach to specific circumstances that other people may feel depend upon "belief," but you know depend on the facts.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23-Dec. 21)
Remember that the purpose of small accomplishments is to add up to big ones. In fact, many fairly major situations may disguise themselves as pure pettiness in these weeks, and you will need to use your sixth and seventh senses to determine whatıs what. While it wonıt always work out this way, anyone putting on a big show is likely to be doing just that. The important stuff will likely manifest in the way people feel about themselves, or their subtle insecurities getting the best of them. And while youıre watching their insecurities, keep an eye on your own. Bursts of confusion, fear and instability may entice you to believe youıre not quite cut of leadership cloth. It isnıt so.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)
Run like the wind. Go where you will. The blessing of travel and the God of blessing are with you, whether it be travel across the physical plane or movement in conscience and consciousness, or of faith, or answering callings from faraway lands. There will be some among you who feel now called to pursue higher academic aspirations, and others beckoned serious into artistic careers. Itıs all good, itıs all true, but for your purposes, just one rule of thumb would serve to benefit you: make sure that you make your decision on the basis of what would be the most fun. All other things being equal, or some choices even seeming far superior, do what, or as the case may be, who, is the most fun.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 19-Feb. 18)
Developments of this week will, I am rather certain, serve to lighten your spirits, to float you like a sailboat on dry land that suddenly finds itself flooded all around by rising water. This is no fleeting phase, but rather the beginning of a major stage of growth designed to reorient your course in life. Remember that your navigation skills will no longer be terrestrial in nature -- needing to go over or around obstacles, for example. You are now governed by the laws and physics of the sea. Speaking of which: a few thunderheads blowing in from the southeast represent a little financial storm, but this one can be easily weathered with the use of playful imagination.


PISCES (Feb. 19-Mar. 20)
Recent bumping, burning and sizzling of the planets has been rapping and wrapping you in recent weeks, perhaps dating back to late last year. And the weeks ahead are not exactly set up with elegant simplicity; you might call it elegant complexity. But even as Mercury slides backwards in your cove of the sea for the next three weeks, itıs clear that youıll be seeing many signs of the changing times, obvious indications of progress, many places to connect preparation and opportunity -- and have a few choice opportunities to connect with people you hardly suspected youıd connect with, in ways you had not quite imagined. Just remember, everyone is closer than you think, and there is no rush.

For the Faithful
Planet Waves weekly horoscope wraps up its first 79-week run across the galaxy next Friday, just a few days after Mercury turns retrograde. The monthly horoscope, published since 1995, will continue at Planet Waves online and keyword MYSTIC on AOL. Before I take a bow, I want to acknowledge the contributions of my teacher and mentor, Joseph Trusso -- who is not an astrologer -- for patiently helping me unravel the mysteries and iron out the wrinkles of my own existence, and serving as a role model of no-bullshit, clear-headed process work. He has also turned me onto the most important reference points Iıve found in the field of humanistic therapy, including the great wisdom of Fritz and Lora Perls and the Gestalt movement. And he taught me to take myself seriously, or rather -- just seriously enough. Thank you, Joe, for this lifetime and all the others.

Planet Waves Online: www.PlanetWaves.net
E-mail eric@PlanetWaves.net Office Phone (914) 339-3339