#Sun Transit 15 May 2019

[ms-m-astrologer]

Transiting Uranus stations direct

Saturday, January 27, 2024, 07:35 UT, 19°05’ Taurus

Caveat: this probably won’t have much of an impact on anyone personally unless they have a strong Uranian presence in their birthchart: Aquarius Sun, Moon, or angle (Ascendant, IC, Descendant, MC); strong 11th House energy; Uranus in close aspect to the Sun, the Moon, or an angle.

Uranus is said to be in its “fall” in Taurus - that is, it is in the sign that is opposite its “exaltation,” Scorpio. A planet being in its fall is said to be like a person staying in a completely alien place, where it doesn’t know the rules. But can you see how that might be a good thing for the planet? It’s forced to stretch, to develop new ways to operate.

Uranus first entered Taurus in May 2018, retrograded back into Aries in November 2018, and went back into Taurus for the duration in March 2019. Many of us have been “kicked out of our comfort zones” (definitely a Taurus thing) or have undergone extreme financial vicissitudes (Taurus too). Mother Nature (Taurus) has been pushing back through the climate catastrophe.

Ideally we’ve used this time to simplify our lives, get closer to nature, and develop an attunement to what our bodies are telling us. We’ve used the retrograde period to work things out internally, and now we’re ready to act.

If you feel like you haven’t quite managed any of that yet, don’t worry! There’s still plenty of time to make the effort.

Uranus next goes retrograde on Sunday, September 1, at 27°15’ Taurus.

[nasa]

Tournament Earth: The Earthly Eight

To celebrate Earth Observatory’s 20th anniversary and the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, we asked readers to pick our all-time best image. We have already completed two rounds of voting, which led to two rounds of stunning upsets. As we head into round 3, only two of the top eight seeds (#1s and #2s) remain. It is time now to cast your votes for the best of the Earthly 8. Voting ends on April 13 at 9 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time.

The nominees are separated into four groups: Past Winners, Home Planet, Land & Ice, and Sea & Sky. Check out the contenders still in the game:

Past Winners: Ocean Sand, Bahamas (#5 seed) vs. A View from Saturn (#2 seed)

Though the above image may resemble a new age painting straight out of an art gallery in Venice Beach, California, it is in fact a satellite image of the sands and seaweed in the Bahamas. The image was taken by the Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus (ETM+) instrument aboard the Landsat 7 satellite. Tides and ocean currents in the Bahamas sculpted the sand and seaweed beds into these multicolored, fluted patterns in much the same way that winds sculpted the vast sand dunes in the Sahara Desert.

This beautiful image of Saturn and its rings looks more like an artist’s creation than a real image, but in fact, the image is a composite (layered image) made from 165 images taken by the wide-angle camera on the Cassini spacecraft over nearly three hours on September 15, 2006. Scientists created the color in the image by digitally compositing ultraviolet, infrared, and clear-filter images and then adjusting the final image to resemble natural color. (A clear filter is one that allows in all the wavelengths of light the sensor is capable of detecting.) This image is a closeup view of the upper left quadrant of the rings, through which Earth is visible in the far, far distance. The full image can be seen here.

Home Planet: Twin Marbles (#1 seed) vs. Fire in the Sky and on the Ground (#7 seed)

A day’s clouds. The shape and texture of the land. The living ocean. City lights as a beacon of human presence across the globe. This amazingly beautiful view of Earth from space is a fusion of science and art, a showcase for the remote-sensing technology that makes such views possible, and a testament to the passion and creativity of the scientists who devote their careers to understanding how land, ocean, and atmosphere—even life itself—interact to generate Earth’s unique (as far as we know!) life-sustaining environment.

Astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) used a digital camera to capture several hundred photographs of the aurora australis, or “southern lights,” while passing over the Indian Ocean on September 17, 2011. If you click on this movie, you can see the flowing ribbons and rays below as the ISS passed from south of Madagascar to just north of Australia between 17:22 and 17:45 Universal Time. Solar panels and other sections of the ISS fill some of the upper right side of the photograph.

Auroras are a spectacular sign that our planet is electrically and magnetically connected to the Sun. These light shows are provoked by energy from the Sun and fueled by electrically charged particles trapped in Earth’s magnetic field, or magnetosphere. In this case, the space around Earth was stirred up by an explosion of hot, ionized gas from the Sun—a coronal mass ejection—that left the Sun on September 14, 2011.

Ice and Land: Sand Dunes (#8 seed) vs. Retreat of Columbia Glacier (#6 seed)

Mountains of sand, some as tall as 300 meters (1000 feet), reach from the floor of Africa’s Namib Desert toward the sky. Driven by wind, these dunes march across the desert, bordered to the west by the Atlantic Ocean and in other directions by solid, rocky land.

The abrupt transition from sand to land is visible in this image, acquired on November 13, 2019, by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8. They show the northern extent of the Namib Sand Sea—a field of sand dunes spanning more than 3 million hectares (more than 10,000 square miles) within the Namib-Naukluft Park, which was named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2013. Sand appears red, painted by a layer of iron oxide.

Scientists have long studied Alaska's fast-moving Columbia Glacier, a tidewater glacier that descends through the Chugach Mountains into Prince William Sound. Yet the river of ice continues to deliver new surprises.

The image series begins in July 1986 (bottom image) with a false-color image captured by the Thematic Mapper (TM) sensor on the Landsat 5 satellite. The false-color image from July 2014 (top image), acquired by the Operational Land Imager on the Landsat 8 satellite, shows the extent of retreat after 28 years. Use the image comparison tool to better see the details.

Sea and Sky: Atafu Atoll, Tokelau (#8 seed) vs. Raikoke Erupts (#6 seed)

At roughly eight kilometers wide, Atafu Atoll is the smallest of three atolls and one island (Nukunonu and Fakaofo Atolls to the southeast and Swains Island to the south are not shown) comprising the Tokelau Islands group located in the southern Pacific Ocean. The primary settlement on Atafu is a village located at the northwestern corner of the atoll. The typical ring shape of the atoll is the result of coral reefs building up around a former volcanic island.

Unlike some of its perpetually active neighbors on the Kamchatka Peninsula, Raikoke Volcano on the Kuril Islands rarely erupts. The small, oval-shaped island most recently exploded in 1924 and in 1778.

The dormant period ended around 4:00 a.m. local time on June 22, 2019, when a vast plume of ash and volcanic gases shot up from its 700-meter-wide crater. Several satellites—as well as astronauts on the International Space Station—observed as a thick plume rose and then streamed east as it was pulled into the circulation of a storm in the North Pacific.

On the morning of June 22, astronauts shot this photograph of the volcanic plume rising in a narrow column and then spreading out in a part of the plume known as the umbrella region. That is the area where the density of the plume and the surrounding air equalize and the plume stops rising. The ring of clouds at the base of the column appears to be water vapor.

See all of the images and vote now HERE. 

 Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.

[lunalilith19]

Marjorie Lajoie and Zach Lagha: Saturn and Uranus transits

2020 Canadian silver medalists, 2019 Junior World champions

This year, with transiting Saturn in Aquarius and Uranus in Taurus for the entire year, people with fixed placements in their chart - Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius- from 5°-15° will be receiving hard transits. This may sound difficult, but the impetus from hard transits seems to give some athletes more focus and determination to succeed, the way diamonds are created from pressure, so it will be interesting to follow the Olympic season to see how this plays out.

Zach Lagha is a double Aries, but he has a very prominent fixed T-square in his chart in Taurus, Scorpio and Aquarius which has been and will continue to be activated this year.

Saturn activated his T-square by transit in Jan-Feb, and it will again Sept-Nov, during the competition season.

Transit Saturn square his Saturn: period of soul searching and examining what's working and what's not. relates back to something which started around 7 years ago. (Around those years, he and Marjorie won Canadian Nationals as Pre-Novice, then Novice, broke up their partnership for 6 months in 2015 and then decided to skate together again). Aspects of your life which withstand the tests of this period will be strong and worthwhile.

Transit Saturn conjunct his Neptune: self doubt, uncertainty, anxiety. ability to make sacrifices for the higher good

Transit Saturn square his Mars: possibility for conflicts with others where your ambitions may make others feel defensive. need to be careful of health

His T-square has Mars opposite Saturn which can give you a deep need to prove your worth to yourself through achieving, and Neptune gives him an outlet for that through creativity and self expression. skating seems like a natural way of expressing the energies of this, so the transits may be evolving how he views and approaches it.

Marjorie Lajoie is a Scorpio with her Sun squaring Uranus in Aquarius in her chart, so she is getting some major transits as well.

Transiting Saturn squares her Sun (May-June 2021, Jan 2022): an important time for development. may feel discouraged or low in energy and feel challenged by outside forces. requires patience and perseverance. this period is linked to a time 7 years ago. a time of trial when things that aren't working fall away or need to be cut out. things which are working well culminate.

Transiting Uranus opposes her Sun (mid June-October): can be sudden changes which challenge you to stand up for yourself and take on more responsibility. things which have been restricting or limiting you may give way to more freedom but may rock your sense of security. adapting rather than resisting usually leads to better results.

To top it off, their composite chart of their relationship is heavily fixed, with Sun, Neptune, Uranus in Aquarius and Jupiter in Taurus.

Transit Saturn conjuncted their composite Sun in Jan/Feb: time of tremendous responsibility and hard work. concentration of energy that might feel restricted but keeps you focused.

Transit Saturn square composite Jupiter (end of March-April, end of June-July, end of Dec 2021-early Jan. 2022): freedom of action may be limited, making you feel restless or frustrated. competitive and complicated environments test your beliefs and values. pressure from authority figures. a need to be patient and not take any shortcuts.

Transit Uranus conjunct composite Jupiter (May, Dec 2021- Mar 2022): sudden changes or events which bring new possibilities. openness to new viewpoints or ways of looking at the world. wanting freedom and to take chances.

[ao-anonymousobsesser]

We Remain "Previously On" Timeline

NEXT

I've decided to move the timeline up for... well, mostly for convenience to be honest, but also to help match up the Moon Phases. Apologies for any inconvenience/misunderstanding! (ALSO THIS IS 100 PERCENT NOT GOING TO INCLUDE ANY REAL-WORLD EVENTS FROM THE LAST 5 YEARS SO DON'T EVEN WORRY ABOUT THAT)

Previously on... Vampire Diaries...:

2017 AD:

26 May (Fri, New Moon): Delena meet, Grayson and Miranda die

4-8 September (Mon-Fri, Full Moon-Waning Gibbous): S1E1 “Pilot”, S1E2 “Night of the Comet”

11-15 September (Mon-Fri, Last Quarter): S1E3 “Friday Night Bites”

16-17 September (Sat-Sun, Last Quarter): S1E4 “Family Ties”

21-23 September (Thurs-Sat, New Moon): S1E5 “You’re Undead to Me”, S1E6 “Lost Girls”

30-31 October (Mon-Tues, Waxing Gibbous): S1E7 “Haunted”

1 November (Wed, Waxing Gibbous): S1E8 “162 Candles” (which is already incorrect even if the episode took place in 2009 because Stefan was born in 1846 so he would be 163 not 162, so I’m just changing it to be “171 Candles”)

27-30 November (Mon-Thurs, First Quarter): S1E9 “History Repeating”

30 November-3 December (Thurs-Sun, Full): S1E10 “The Turning Point”, S1E11 “Bloodlines”

7-9 December (Thurs-Fri, Last Quarter): S1E12 “Unpleasantville”

16-17 December (Sat-Sun, New): S1E13 “Children of the Damned”, S1E14 “Fool Me Once”

2017-2018 AD (transitioning/new year):

27 December-2 January (Wed-Tues, First Quarter-Full): S1E15 “A Few Good Men”

2018 AD:

12-13 January (Fri-Sat, Waning Crescent): S1E16 “There Goes the Neighborhood”, S1E17 “Let the Right One In”

30 January (Tues, Full): S1E18 “Under Control”

9-10 February (Fri-Sat, Waning Crescent): S1E19 “Miss Mystic Falls”

16-17 February (Fri-Sat, New): S1E20 “Blood Brothers”, S1E21 “Isobel”

22-25 February (Thurs-Sun, First Quarter): S1E22 “Founders Day”, S2E1 “The Return”, S2E2 “Brave New World”

2-4 March (Fri-Sun, Full): S2E3 “Bad Moon Rising”, S2E4 “Memory Lane”, S2E5 “Kill or Be Killed”

7 March (Wed, Waning Gibbous): S2E6 “Plan B”

11-13 March (Sun-Tues, Last Quarter): S2E7 “Masquerade”, S2E8 “Rose”, S2E9 “Katerina”

19 March (Mon, New): S2E10 “The Sacrifice”

30 March-2 April (Fri-Mon, Full): S2E11 “By the Light of the Moon”, S2E12 “The Descent”, S2E13 “Daddy Issues”

3-4 April (Tues-Wed, Waning Gibbous): S2E14 “Crying Wolf”, S2E15 “The Dinner Party”

9-10 April (Mon-Tues, Last Quarter): S2E16 “The House Guest”, S2E17 “Know Thy Enemy”

13-14 April (Fri-Sat, Waning Crescent): S2E18 “The Last Dance”, S2E19 “Klaus”

28-30 April (Sat-Mon, Full): S2E20 “The Last Day”, S2E21 “The Sun Also Rises”, S2E22 “As I Lay Dying

22-30 June (Fri, Waxing Gibbous-Full): S3E1 “The Birthday”, S3E2 “The Hybrid”, S3E3 “The End of the Affair”

31 August (Fri, Waning Gibbous): S3E4 “Disturbing Behavior”

2-5 September (Sun-Wed, Last Quarter): S3E5 “The Reckoning”, S3E6 “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, S3E7 “Ghost World”

15 September (Sat, Waxing Crescent): S3E8 “Ordinary People”

21-22 September (Fri-Sat, Waxing Gibbous): S3E9 “Homecoming”

30 September (Sun, Last Quarter): S3E10 “The New Deal”

10-11 October (Wed-Thurs, New): S3E11 “Our Town”

20-21 October (Sat-Sun, Full): S3E12 “The Ties That Bind”, S3E13 “Bringing Out the Dead”

22-24 October (Mon-Wed, Full): S3E14 “Dangerous Liaisons”, S3E15 “All My Children”, S3E16 “1912”

27-28 October (Sat-Sun), Waning Gibbous): S3E17 “Break On Through”, S3E18 “The Murder of One”

3 November (Sat, Waning Crescent): S3E19 “Heart of Darkness”

9-12 November (Fri-Mon, New): S3E20 “Do Not Go Gentle”, S3E21 “Before Sunset”, S3E22 “The Departed”, S4E1 “Growing Pains”

17-18 November (Sat-Sun, Waxing Gibbous): S4E2 “Memorial”

26-28 November (Mon-Wed, Waning Gibbous): S4E3 “The Rager”, S3E4 “The Five”, S3E5 “The Killer”

29-30 November (Thurs-Fri, Last Quarter): S4E6 “We All Go a Little Mad Sometimes”

8-11 December (Sat-Tues, New): S4E7 “My Brother’s Keeper”, S4E8 “We’ll Always Have Bourbon Street”

12 December (Wed, Waxing Crescent): S4E9 “O Come, All Ye Faithful”

2019 AD

5-8 January (Sat-Tues, ~New): S4E10 “After School Special”, S4E11 “Catch Me If You Can”, S4E12 “A View to a Kill”

Recent Events: TVD Season Four (2019 AD)

9-10 January (Wed-Thurs, New Moon): S4E13 “Into the Wild”

11-12 January (Fri-Sat, New Moon): S4E14 “Down the Rabbit Hole” and S4E15 “Stand By Me”

12 Jan: Elena flips switch / burns house down

20 January-15 February: S4E16 “Bring It On”

20 Jan (Sun, Full Moon): “it’s only been a couple days” convo

15 Feb (Fri, Waxing Gibbous): “going back to school” convo / adventure, Elena’s party, Carolena fight, Klayley get “close”, Delena go to NYC

16-17 Feb (Sat-Sun, Full Moon): S4E17 “Because the Night”

16 Feb: Elena / Damon explore NYC, Bonnie completes Expression Triangle

17 Feb: Klaroline spat while burying bodies, start of Beklena road trip

5 March (Tues, New Moon): S4E18 “American Gothic”

Beklena were on the road for about 2 weeks before Willoughby

Beklena find Katherine / interrogate her

Elena goes to meet “em” at the gazebo

NEXT

[wtf-triassic]

Odontochelys semitestacea

By @alphynix​

Etymology: Toothed Turtle

First Described By: Lie et al., 2008 

Classification: Biota, Archaea, Proteoarchaeota, Asgardarchaeota, Eukaryota, Neokaryota, Scotokaryota, Opimoda, Podiata, Amorphea, Obazoa, Opisthokonta, Holozoa, Filozoa, Choanozoa, Animalia, Eumetazoa, Parahoxozoa, Bilateria, Nephrozoa, Deuterostomia, Chordata, Olfactores, Vertebrata, Craniata, Gnathostomata, Eugnathostomata, Osteichthyes, Sarcopterygii, Rhipidistia, Tetrapodomorpha, Eotetrapodiformes, Elpistostegalia, Stegocephalia, Tetrapoda, Reptiliomorpha, Amniota, Sauropsida, Eureptilia, Romeriida, Diapsida, Neodiapsida, Sauria, Archosauromorpha?, Archelosauria, Pantestudines, Odontochelyidae  

Time and Place: Around 232 million years ago, in the Carnian age of the Late Triassic

Odontochelys is known from the Lower Member of the Xiaowa Formation of China, commonly known as the Guanling Fauna

Physical Description: Odontochelys is one of the earliest known turtles - preceded by one, possibly two, precursors other than stem members of the family group - and it showcases how this extremely unique group managed to evolve in the chaos that was the Triassic Explosion. It was simultaneously similar to and very different from living turtles, a true transitional organism. Like other reptiles, it had teeth embedded in its jaws, rather than the toothless beak found in turtle mouths. Like turtles, it had the lower plastron extending from its ribs, but unlike living turtles it had no upper shell - instead, it just had widened ribs and no bony shell around its body. The ribs and the vertebrae were put together differently from modern turtles as well, and its skull was more stretched out compared to its living relatives. It didn’t have fused tail bones, and its scapulae were very different from living turtles. It had short limbs and long, thick fingers, as well as a decently sized shell. It was about forty centimeters long from snout to tail tip. 

Diet: The diet of Odontochelys is fairly uncertain, despite us having its teeth; though they are small and peg like, we can’t really extrapolate a function since we don’t actually know its precise ecology! They may have been used for stripping plants, but it’s also possible they were used to chipp up algae and other aquatic water plants, or even invertebrates! So, more research there is clearly needed. 

Behavior: The life history of Odontochelys is actually a big mystery. It was found in a marine environment, leading initial studies to indicate it was marine. However, it had the hands of a fresh water organism, including fresh water turtles today. Furthermore, studies of other early turtles indicate that turtles first arose on the land, rather than in the water, and later groups would adapt to water life; the limbs of Odontochelys share similarities with tortoises and support a terrestrial lifestyle. So, the ecology of Odontochelys has been a constant battle. That said, there is some evidence that it was actually marine - and may represent an early experiment in ocean life by turtles. One fossil of Odontochelys indicates that it had completely messed up shoulder bones, likely due to a problem in life rather than destruction of the fossil. This pattern resembles decompression sickness, aka the bends, aka the condition caused by a diving animal coming up much too fast from a lower depth. Modern turtles have complex behavioral adaptations to avoid the bends, so Odontochelys may be an early experiment in marine life in a group mostly adapted for terrestrial life. In this transition to ocean life, it not only lacked better physical adaptations for the ocean, but also better behavioral ones, and was stricken with the bends on its trip back to the surface. So, as we try to determine its ecology and behavior, these clued paint a rich tapestry of the world’s most transitional turtle. A pioneer! 

Ecosystem: Odontochelys was found in - and thus, the null hypothesis is that it lived in - an ocean environment near the coast of the Tethys sea. This was a deep, open ocean - pelagic, hence the bends and problems Odontochelys faced trying to deal with the ocean. It was a very fertile ecosystem as well, with a variety of Triassic marine animals showcasing the rapid evolution of these groups. Among the invertebrates, there were many different types of Ammonites, plenty of bivalves, brachiopods, and crinoids & sea cucumbers as well. Still, the fascinating part of the ecosystem was the sheer number of marine reptiles. There were Thalattosaurs such as Anshusaurus and Xinpusaurus; Placodonts like Psephochelys and Sinocyamodus; and Ichthyosaurs like Qianicthyosaurus, Guizhouichthyosaurus, Guanlingsaurus, and Callawayia. One of many beautiful deposits of marine animals from this Period - and the many Ichthyosaurs would have been major predators of the relative n00b Odontochelys. 

Other: Odontochelys also just looks really weird because it basically looks like your usual turtle except it doesn’t have a freaking shell so here we are with this oddity. It’s transitional in shape, transitional in ecology, transitional in behavior, and just. What the heck. What the heck, Odontochelys. If you need more proof for evolution despite knowing about the dinosaur - bird transition, have I got a friend for you. 

~ By Meig Dickson 

Sources Under the Cut

Anquetin, J. 2012. Reassessment of the phylogenetic interrelationships of basal turtles (Testudinata). Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 10(1):3-45. 

Bradley Shaffer, H., E. McCartney-Melstad, T. J. Near, G. G. Mount, P. Q. Spinks. 2017. Phylogenomic analyses of 539 highly informative loci dates a fully resolved time tree for the major clades of living turtles (Testudines). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 115: 7 - 15. 

Feldmann, R. M., C. E. Schweitzer, S. Hu, J. Huang, Q. Zhang, C. Zhou, W. Wen, T. Xie, E. P. Maguire. 2017. A new Middle Triassic (Anisian) cyclidan crustacean from the Luoping Biota, Yunnan Province, China: morphologic and phylogenetic insights. Journal of Crustacean Biology 37 (4): 406 - 412. 

Gilbert, S. F. 2007. How the turtle gets its shell. Biology of Turtles: The Structures to Strategies of Life. 

Heiss, E. 2010. Functionality and plasticity of turtle-feeding with special emphasis on oropharyngeal structures. Universitat Wien Doctoral Dissertation. 

Hess, H., W. Etter, and H. Hagdorn. 2016. Roveacrinida (Crinoidea) from Late Triassic (early Carnian) black shales of Southwest China. Swiss Journal of Paleontology 135(2):249-274. 

Joyce, W. G. 2015. The origin of turtles: A paleontological perspective. Journal of Experimental Zoology Part B: Molecular and Developmental Evolution 324 (3): 181 - 193. 

Lee, M. S. Y. 2013. Turtle origins: Insights from phylogenetic retrofitting and molecular scaffolds. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 26 (12): 2729 - 2738. 

Lemell, P., N. Natchev, C. J. Beisser, E. Heiss. 2019. Feeding in Turtles: Understanding Terrestrial and Aquatic Feeding in a Diverse but Monophyletic Group. Feeding in Vertebrates: 611 - 642. 

Li, C., and O. Rieppel. 2002. A new cyamodontid placodont from Triassic of Guizhou, China. Chinese Science Bulletin 47(5):403-407. 

Li, C., X. C. Wu, O. Rieppel, L. T. Wang, and L. J. Zhao. 2008. An ancestral turtle from the Late Triassic of southwestern China. Nature 456:497-501. 

Lu, H., D.-Y. Jiang, R. Motani, P.-G. Ni, Z.-Y. Sun, A. Tintori, S.-Z. Xiao, M. Zhou, C. Ji, W.-L. Fu. 2018. Middle Triassic Xingyi Fauna: Showing turnover of marine reptiles from coastal to oceanic environments. Palaeoworld 27 (1): 107 - 116. 

Luo, M., Y.-M. Gong, G. R. Shi, Z.-Q. Chen, J. Huang, S. Hu, X. Feng, Q. Zhang, C. Zhou, W. Wen. 2018. Palaeoecological Analysis of Trace Fossil Sinusichnus sinuosus from the Middle Triassic Guanling Formationin Southwestern China. Journal of Earth Science 29: 854 - 863. 

Meredith, R. W., J. Gatesy, M. S. Springer. Molecular decay of enamel matrix protein genes in turtles and other edentulous amniotes. BMC Evolutionary Biology 13: 20. 

Neenan, J. M., N. Klein, T. M. Scheyer. 2013. European origin of placodont marine reptiles and the evolution of crushing dentition in Placodontia. Nature Communications 4: 1621. 

Nicholls, E. L., C. Wei, and M. Manabe. 2002. New material of Qianichthyosaurus Li, 1999 (Reptilia, Ichthyosauria) from the Late Triassic of southern China, and implications for the distribution of Triassic icthyosaurs. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 22(4):759-765. 

Reisz, R. R., J. J. Head. 2008. Palaeontology: Turtle origins out to sea. Nature 456 (7221): 450 - 451. 

Rothschild, B. M., V. Naples. 2015. Decompression syndrome and diving behavior in Odontochelys, the first turtle. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 60 (1): 163 - 167. 

Schoch, R. R., H.-D. Sues. 2015. A Middle Triassic stem-turtle and the evolution of the turtle body plan. Nature 523 (7562): 584 - 587. 

Shang, Q.-H., and C. Li. 2009. On the occurrence of the ichthyosaur Shastasaurus in the Guanling biota (Late Triassic), Guizhou, China. Vertebrata PalAsiatica 47(3):178-193. 

Vermeij, G. J., R. Motani. 2017. Land to sea transitions in vertebrates: the dynamics of colonization. Paleobiology 44 (2): 237 - 250. 

Wang, X., G. H. Bachmann, H. Hagdorn, P. M. Sanders, G. Cuny, X. Chen, C. Wang, L. Chen, L. Cheng, F. Meng, and G. Xu. 2008. The Late Triassic black shales of the Guanling area, Guizhou province, south-west China: a unique marine reptile and pelagic crinoid fossil lagerstätte. Palaeontology 51(1):27-61. 

Wang, X., X. Chen, C. Wang, L. Cheng. 2009. The Triassic Guanling Fossil Group - A Key GeoPark from a barren mountain, Guizhou Province, China. Notebooks on Geology 3: Chapter 2: 11 - 28. 

[astrology-with-charu]

April to November 2020 -

The Summer of Stormy Eclipses & Jupiter Pluto Conjunction

==========================

“Chipping around, kick my brains around the floor, These are the days it never rains but it pours” ...

~ Under Pressure

It’s like David Bowie had seen the future we live today. It’s the title song of my Aries season as this Jupiter Pluto conjunction starts playing it’s tangible role meeting Sun and Mercury till 25/26 April in harsh aspect with Pluto standing still at its full potency about to go retrograde on 25th April.

Can you feel the pressure ? Everyone can ... from pressure come truth bombs & real growth, so let’s see what comes out of this for us. We will go into each sign as usual in part 2 of this post but let’s get clear on what it is cause there is an astrological aspect soup in the Sky right now.

I apologise this report was tough to write & I am sure it will be tough to hear, I rarely post these kind of reports. But looking at expectations for global events we would see how at an individual level we can contribute to growth that comes through this crisis and hopefully together we see deeper meaning of what’s about to come.

Jupiter meets Pluto every 12.5 years like any outer planets meeting in their path around Sun (synod) - this meeting defines global events but especially economic events.

Economic events have been historically clearly linked with this cycle, the conjunction being catalyst for growth that comes through popping of a bubble - truth coming to light, draining fake accomplishments & then becoming catalysts of growth away from previous cycle, away from our comfort zone. I had written about this in the 2020 introduction note along with the 12 Jan event on New Years - the note is pinned on the Facebook page for you to see sign specific focus of this aspect.

https://www.facebook.com/595133057621535/posts/770204786781027/?d=n

I had mentioned both US shifting it’s stance on severity of virus before the spread & further emphasise on economic crisis in my March note.

https://www.facebook.com/595133057621535/posts/818486065286232/

Do see April video if you haven’t on views of upcoming aspects on timelines of year ahead.

https://youtu.be/T8G-tgqcd4s

While these two planets will meet three times between April to November- the heliocentric meeting of 31 July will reflect a clear transition of global events. This would be critical moment in economy & a marker of financial markets bubble popping. First meeting which is in April usually stokes ambition and even greed - we see corporations & markets take a bullish outlook and stoke the bubble expanding it bigger. Seeds are sown of growth but with objective to gain power over resources by a few - rich become richer essentially & social disparity grows. At personal level despite the obvious signs, we try to gain growth & more control over the life that’s over - life as we know is shifted so we must look to reinvent our growth channels putting seeds of new way of doing things versus sticking to doing what we have been doing. The things that used to make us feel in power & control won’t appeal to us anymore - definition of growth will be reinvented in our individual capacities.

Central banks throwing money at the problem for example fuelling the junk bubble of large corporates & defunct industries is lower manifestation. We will see unfounded optimism on old crutches in markets possibly in May due to that. Instead of working on evolution to new way of growth.

This all goes out of the window in summer when it becomes starkly clear that it isn’t going to function for future - second meeting geocentrically is on 30th June, smack in middle of eclipse season and right after Venus Retrograde when Goddess of love transforms to Goddess of war. Mayans used to use this transition of Venus to time wars.

Truth has no way to hide. Mars would have just entered Aries then and clashed with the karmic nodes (26/27 June) springing us into action cause we have just seen the gap between what we truly want and what we are getting with Venus Retrograde - at individual level we would want to rage a war to change the course of life - it will be a summer of people totally shifting what they do & who they want to become and ofcourse of shifts in post quarantine relationships.

This second meeting usually comes with a crisis of faith, belief & question - is this worth it ? A stark U-Turn!

This period in June we would see loss of faith in leadership, it will be time of failure of leaders & resignations, people’s opinion of the heads of companies and administration will shift enormously as possibly how many have been benefiting from the crisis will be revealed & power hungry identities will be brought to light. This period can be marked with severe storms & accidents as well especially transport or airline related.

Travel should be avoided even if allowed in June, especially around 5 June eclipse.

Pluto rules oil & the few rich elite with power and money - the mafia elite or real. Jupiter rules airline, trade & education industry and we have already seen that bubble burst of artificial high prices in oil and industry coming to a crashing halt but we are trying to still live the same way by strengthening the oil cartel and bandaging airline industry and pretending that trade truce exists. We would see another round of crash in June July when the leaders will move back on their economic promises during Venus Retrograde in first ten days of June. We could see the oil cartel walk back on their promises at the time - as well as trade treaties being broken. Overall Venus Retrograde in Gemini - we would see people walking back on their contracts & promises. Don’t take promises made right now on the word - Venus is walking the flaky degrees it will walk back on between 13 May to 25 June - people will reconsider giving you what they promised in life & money. Bailouts of oil industry & airline wouldn’t work and possibly fire back.

As the Jupiter Pluto conjunction is happening in zodiac sign of Capricorn opposing Cancer zodiac (tropical), industries which could be impacted include - Real Estate, mortgage debt, stone work, ceramic, building / construction & supplies for it, large corporations, small businesses, women rights, women run businesses, children linked businesses, small farms, milk products, sheep, goats, water linked services & ports.

We would see CEOs stepping down, ruling class & high society disclosures, loss of religious leaders & bubble bursts in terms of truth and this will come with a slew of bankruptcy of industries with over leverage / debt in July. We would see truth of the multi trillions bail outs as well.

Capitalism requires failures - bailouts only delay them so what’s going on right now & will continue in May is just bandaging & greed - there is no getting away from this cycle of fluff moving out of financial markets with over exaggerated stock prices - unfortunately Cancer industries opposite to Capricorn could suffer but only briefly - Capricorn archetype represents big industries and Cancer small businesses, small Farmers, families, child education businesses which will suffer briefly in the process. But with north node solar eclipse in Cancer small businesses, women & children linked businesses, small farms have opportunity to reinvent themselves & save themselves whereas large corporations wouldn’t have any short term solutions to do so and would see a structural breakup or breakdown.

Also small businesses would receive some levels of additional support with north node solar eclipse in June as it gives a new start while south node Capricorn eclipse in July will ask big corporates & administration to release something as truths come to surface especially in United States as the 5 July lunar eclipse falls on Sun of United States in 8th house of crisis & transformation.

June July will be a very volatile time for US due to loss of diplomacy & international affairs crisis as well during Venus Retrograde going between natal Uranus & Mars in 7th house of partnerships diplomacy of US chart. This is triggered by the first eclipse of the season on 5 June which is a Lunar eclipse at 15° Sag square Mars in Pisces - t square of underhanded actions. International diplomatic affairs will go through a wringer in early June in wake of Venus retrograde and this very volatile eclipse of 5th June - which we would start feeling from end May.

This would be followed by 21 June solar eclipse at 0°21’ Cancer which is is conjunct Ascendant & Uranus of North Korea pointing to escalation in that direction. We would see a warning shot fired as early as 25/26 April when this eclipse of 21 June is getting activated by the nodes. But it would not be taken seriously.

Pluto is also going retrograde on 25/26 Apr within orb of natal Pluto in house of resources of United States - that’s why I believe both the diplomatic crisis & financial will strike together during summer with a trigger seen now in last week of April which would be ignored in noise of current moment. Bubbles in Pluto Jupiter burst not because of it being a surprise but more due to greed & complacency or overconfidence.

Pluto rules nuclear energy and July heliocentric conjunction in aftermath of unstable eclipses can be a dramatic. This along with 5 July eclipse were part of astrological configuration involved in 9/11. Though nothing is exactly same but this time between the eclipse of 21 June is happening within one degree of karmic nodes - this is instant event which isn’t long pronged but what would brew in this short period between 25 April to 21 June with diplomatic escalation in first ten days of June.

5 July lunar eclipse eclipse at 13°38’ Capricorn as I mentioned opposes Sun of United States square natal Saturn - this would be a tough eclipse on incumbent President and administration of US. Activation of this eclipse happened in September 2019 with the start of impeachment process in that month. This was the eclipse involved in events leading upto 9/11 as well. But this eclipse has repercussions way beyond United States as charts of major countries are engaged in this eclipse - UK, Russia, Germany for sure bringing pressure on Euro, Canada, Russia, Australia. I am not in politics so not sure what’s the common threat between these nations.

The eclipses don’t directly interact with China but they are very much leading from Jupiter Pluto conjunction in 12th house Jupiter of China’s chart. That’s where Covid began with Saturn Pluto conjunction Nov-Feb. Jupiter meeting this point will clearly bring out how China in a hidden fashion whether willingly or not are benefiting from this unfortunate crisis. This crisis will tilt the balance of power between the two Super powers. Pluto return of United States will threaten it’s position as largest economy in the world and these events have the power to shift that position.

I know I am taking this call when trillions are being thrown to ensure economic recovery & we will see some of it in May but as I have mentioned in my previous posts - Jupiter Pluto heliocentric(as seen from Sun) conjunction in July burst bubbles & Pluto is within orb of natal Pluto of United States in house of finances & value system.

This will hurt American economy very differently than China, where in US chart Saturn conjuncts natal south node all the way to 2021 in house of finances and in 2021 it will square Uranus in 6th - prolonged financial troubles and social divide. We will talk of Saturn square Uranus in 2021 separately though we are seeing preview of it right now as both planets are in loose square. All tangible strides that human civilisation has taken in name of advancement has engaged Saturn-Uranus cycle. Magna Carta - all men are created equal, American Revolution, World Wide Web, Euro, Napster as well as Putin & Harvey Weinstein were birthed under Saturn Uranus cycle. We will have a society revolution at our doors in 2021 and you would see a preview of it while Saturn is in Aquarius till 1 July as it’s in loose square to Uranus right now. Questioning boundaries, restrictions, people shaming each other for having different opinions, division like a chasm forming in a society but at same time ground breaking inventions & biggest tech breakthroughs which would be made available to large set of population.

That’s all for 2021 taking roots now.

In this unrest people who invent or espouse solutions to blend the past with future will gain - pairing the offbeat ahead of time ideas with new way of living new rules. Have an eye on your contribution to society in face of volatility as Saturn in Aquarius will take our vision through the wringer as a preview till July.

This cycle will possibly break up Euro which was birthed in the last square. We could see a civil war in America next year along with clear division in society, driver being the 14 December eclipse which is key for Trump and would be a catalyst. We could only do our part in these cycles - which is follow the principles of North Node in Gemini & South Node in Sagittarius as I mentioned in our videos - stick to concrete data & stay off extreme belief system, prejudice, stay in present moment, concrete practical commercial skills come into play & use versus generic ideologies. Upgrade your practical skills, Street smart skills, language skills, tech skills & your communication devices - stay with what you know in name of data without attachment to a specific belief system. Don’t listen to gurus, don’t listen to me, don’t listen to astrology if it feels like a cult or blind faith without use of concrete data & rules - stay with what you know in data & facts not perceived facts & belief system.

Unsubscribe to news or channels that pollute your thinking as I mentioned in the video - through north node in Gemini we manifest our destiny to existence through our mind & talk. Stand guard of your mind & learn practical stuff that can be implemented quickly and now. Stick to simple, local businesses using real life skills & talents versus generic global concepts - think of time following 9/11 and how globalisation went out of the window as did global travel.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLv3tUTLu8-MSgPM9mLoblQ7YErDkX6tYu

Coming back to current moment.

Pluto is lord of underworld and brings rebirth through disruption, storms, crisis & acts through our subconscious. Usually an external catalyst causes deep emotional reaction which drives us to bring a big shift in our life. Gut gnawing emotions become our source of growth when Jupiter & Pluto meet. It’s disruptive, it’s raw, it’s real - everything that’s safe is violated by this invasive planet (Pluto) touching our knowledge & faith (Jupiter) in a way freeing us from our own self even if that’s not perceived as such in that moment.

Pluto standing still brings the crisis & fear part of this cycle to obvious external display especially as its standing in connection with Mercury & Sun - fear of survival, death, change, transformation, of letting go yet subconscious drive to not wanting to accept limitations, control issues anymore. That’s the moment where we stand today to early May.

Old is being demolished but what “new” needs to be build isn’t clear yet - in this first contact of Jupiter Pluto cycle. Most cycles only have one contact - back in Dec 1994 we had one, then Dec 2007 we had one - but as unique 2020 is we got 8 months of this with exact contacts in April then in June & lastly in Nov. But as I mentioned July heliocentric meeting would normally bring a global economic event to pass & its usually burst of an economic bubble - fallen angels as it’s called in financial markets.

At personal level we would also feel clear markation of transition from one cycle to another & we would be bursting our own bubbles to see some truths which would ultimately become source of power & strength for us.

Pallas Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom is a key participant in this cycle. She is a Greek warrior Goddess who represents win of diplomacy & strategy over conflict and shows us a way. Greek myth goes as Gods decreed Sea God Poseidon and Wise Goddess Pallas to present a gift to the city to earn guardianship. Who will be the protector? Poseidon gifted Horse and Pallas Athena gifted Olive tree. Horse was majestic royal show piece but did nothing in name of usefulness for stony ground of the city. Olive tree on the other hand would benefit larger set of citizens and will flourish over time.

She sets a different example - she is a woman in the man’s world. She is a warrior without hostility & brutality - she is cerebral, the weaver of patterns, she knows how to link ideas together , see the pattern of current times and create a war strategy.

She points to claiming your power through wisdom in crisis & conflict - keeping your head, objectivity is strength here & it’s going to be tough to come by as we are all being put through the wringer. She is represented as a diamond on top of a cross - purity, clarity, impartial to emotional pull of either side cause there will be two warring sides - what did you expect we have six months of Mars in Aries and we are reaching Saturn Uranus square of 2021 - revolution is knocking on our doorsteps just look around at the divided society we are living in - key raw material for it. But I digress from the solution -

She sees patterns of human behaviour in current moment - reads the direction of wind - understands that world is shifting & instead of fighting it - creates new strategies for it. She is a brain child literally born out of the brain of Zeus / Jupiter - she is a brain wave, she is non judgmental intuition - do you see it ? Can we try to stay objective & see it ? A heavenly flash pointing to a talent, an opportunity, a pattern we have been missing before.

This brain wave in the current moment can help us plant a seed of growth provided we stay objective & see what the current moment is showing us - it’s popping a bubble - can we take it, can we see beyond the pain of it so see the writing on the wall of what’s ahead for us so we can take right strategic move.

It will get easier - once the Sun and Mercury are done squaring Pluto Jupiter till end Apr along with conjunction to Uranus. Mid May these will be trines - easier to execute but squares in April create stress enough for us to do something about it. It’s a gift of obsession that needs to be productively channeled. End goal is more prosperity & mastery but through dogged determination but more importantly through adaptability.

Growth comes from crisis that gets rid of fluff & pretence. But growth comes with the intention to have more power & control (Pluto). Sense of expansion is strongly attached to sense of power over others - we see that clearly in chart of people who have Jupiter Pluto conjunction provided they interact with their personal planet else a whole set of people born in those years would be billionaires and power hungry.

Month of July will bring us closer to truth through a crisis or realisation - it will come after Venus & Mercury retrogrades in June - is it worth it - quintessential question - we would try to see our life path through the veil of happiness and many of us will take a total u turn in what we do for our living, it will provoke a crisis of faith & belief globally in July in administration & big corps as it happens in Capricorn

Through this gut wrenching feeling will come the intensity to doggedly pursue expansion of power in specific area of our life though underlying theme is career, life path & abundance - having more power over own time & resources as well as happiness in having it. It’s restructuring our life for power, autonomy, seeking prosperity - it’s obsession of something we truly want.

Focus on a life change - a project of consequence to shift your status for long term, change the structure of your body, your knowledge your thinking, your inner wiring. It’s going to introduce you to you - it will make you own your own desires - channel the intensity you are feeling - the passion, the rage, the anger, the jealousy - all the things we are told we shouldn’t feel but we would feel - our so called shadow side - to get what your soul desires. Don’t waste it in trying to convince anyone else about the validity of your dream or about the value of you - it’s an obsession but it’s yours - you have the ability to propel it in right direction.

So now in part 2 let’s see where would you feel the intensity to make something big happen, where some truth bombs will drop in releasing you to expand authentically with more power organisationally / mentally / physically ! Remember it’s all happening in zodiac sign of Capricorn - so we go cautiously optimistic & with a plan.

It’s the same area by sign that I covered in the 2020 post on New Years by sign -

https://www.facebook.com/595133057621535/posts/770204786781027/?d=n

Disclaimer - Views presented here are not equivalent to investment advice for professional or non professional investors, they are purely based on historic synods of Saturn Pluto Jupiter

[apod]

2019 November 10

A Mercury Transit Sequence Image Credit & Copyright: Dominique Dierick

Explanation: Tomorrow -- Monday -- Mercury will cross the face of the Sun, as seen from Earth. Called a transit, the last time this happened was in 2016. Because the plane of Mercury's orbit is not exactly coincident with the plane of Earth's orbit, Mercury usually appears to pass over or under the Sun. The featured time-lapse sequence, superimposed on a single frame, was taken from a balcony in Belgium shows the entire transit of 2003 May 7. That solar crossing lasted over five hours, so that the above 23 images were taken roughly 15 minutes apart. The north pole of the Sun, the Earth's orbit, and Mercury's orbit, although all different, all occur in directions slightly above the left of the image. Near the center and on the far right, sunspots are visible. After Monday, the next transit of Mercury will occur in 2032.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap191110.html

[tameila]

The Sun Always Rises ‘verse, a timeline

Today, February 28th, as of about 2 am, it will have been three years since I first posted The Sun Always Rises. I am immensely proud of what this story became over the years and the universe it created. One thing I always loved while writing TSAR and still love today and, let’s be real, always will love is seeing readers engage with the ‘verse in their own ways. Fics, playlists, fanart! I am continuously overwhelmed by your engagement.

listen, the most tender of my years as a writer were spent as a roleplayer, collaborative writing/world-building is everything to me. so, what better way to nurture that collaborative spirit than to release an extensive timeline of what I have in my mind thus far! I would love to see you guys add your own spin or fill in your own blanks to it. Let’s talk headcanons! Let’s make those headcanons straight-up TSAR canon!!

I’m hoping to keep adding important dates as I continue this ‘verse, because - Yes! I do have sequels planned, and yes, they will come out someday! & I would also love to hear any feedback on dates/timeline particulars that you guys would like to see. This timeline only covers the timeline of Scanlan and Pike’s story, but perhaps I should go further into the past and talk about things like...When exactly did Grog join the Trickfoot family? What’s the timeline on the twins arriving in Westruun again? Wait, how old are Kima and Allura compared to Pike and Keyleth? Anything! You let me know! 

Let’s keep the collaboration going! ☀️

to start, some basic information:

Pike’s birthday: May 1990

Scanlan’s birthday: August 1986

Grog’s birthday: October 1986 (held back a year in school due to the trial and transition of him moving from his uncle’s custody to Wilhand’s_

and now let’s begin!

Scanlan and Pike first meet at Grog and Scanlan’s orientation week for college in August 2005

Scanlan just turned 19

Grog will be turning 19 in October

Pike is 15, going into her sophomore year of high school

During his freshman year, Scanlan records a couple demos and tries to peddle copies to as many people on his campus as possible. While visiting one weekend, he gave Pike a signed copy, which she thought was funny (but she still has it) and she took a handful back to distribute around school because Scanlan bought her froyo and she promised she would

Scanlan (20) is found by a talent scout during the Winter of 2006/7 while playing small taverns during winter break and is rush-signed to the Golden Grin. He resolves to stay in school, however, for the sake of his mother. However, juggling recording and song-writing with school work proves too difficult and, in Spring 2007, as his second year of college nears an end, he drops out

Grog (20) drops out with him, throwing himself full force into the fighting career he’d been low-key building up amongst amateur circles

Pike (16) is in her junior year of high school.

Scanlan (20) releases his first single in July 2007 to lukewarm acclaim, and his label immediately thrusts him out into the touring junket to try and get him seen.

Scanlan (21) releases his second single in December 2007, after months of grueling touring, and it’s a big hit. He’s an overnight success, played across stations nationwide. As he’s fielding congratulations from left and right, he receives the news that his mother was murdered in a break-in gone wrong.

He’s allowed (barely) a month to grieve before he’s thrown back into the limelight. Press. More shows. Finalizing his freshman album.

Scanlan (21) releases his first album, Royal, in June 2008. There was one more single released beforehand. He’s touring off-and-on the entire time, mostly as an opening act with a few small venue headliners.

Pike (18) graduates from high school in June 2008. A week later, she sets off on her world travels with Scanlan’s album as her backdrop.

Scanlan begins touring for Royal in July 2008.

Pike (18, almost 19) returns from her world travels in March 2009.

Near the end of his headline tour and after her return from her world travels, Scanlan (22) and Pike (19) see each other for the “second first time” in July 2009 at Grog’s (22) first headliner fight against his long-estranged cousin, Zanror.

it’s the night that their relationship dynamic changes from “kid sister/big brother’s friend” to flirty asides and shy glances.

While still touring and adjusting to his new celebrity status, Scanlan begins work on his new album. After touring ends in late July 2009, he throws himself into collaborations with other artists within the industry.

 During Spring Break 2010, Pike (20) visits Scanlan’s (23) new mansion along with her brother, Grog (23). [please refer to this work of art by the legend, jabletown]

In between Royal and Aubergine, Scanlan releases the Wine – EP in July 2010. It showcases songs that will eventually show up on his sophomore album and includes another chart-topping single that sustains his place in the zeitgeist until his next album.

Scanlan (24) releases his second album, Aubergine, in February 2011.

Scanlan tours Aubergine (March 2011-Feb 2012). At some point during the tour, Pike attends a show. Scanlan and her have some flirtations, but it doesn’t go anywhere. Mostly because Scanlan gets overwhelmed by the fact that, “Holy shit. She’s actually flirting back with, like, equal intensity and intent” and he freaks out, and Pike finds him later making out with someone else. Nice one, Scanman.

Half-way through the tour dates (Feb 2012), at the after-party of some award show, Scanlan coked out of his mind causes a big media scene. When he goes unresponsive during the car ride back to his hotel, he’s rushed to the hospital. He goes into rehab the first time (Feb 2011-May 2011). Dranzel takes over his management.

Despite Dranzel’s encouragement for him to take a break, Scanlan resumes touring in July 2011. He finishes touring in December 2011.

Scanlan relapses again in September 2012. Pike sends him her letter. Scanlan is 26. Pike is 22. He attends rehab from September 2012-January 2013.

Pike (23) graduates from college in June 2013. She worked at the temple throughout her studies but, with the addition of her degree, Wilhand increases her responsibilities.

After exiting rehab, Scanlan jumps right back into working. He releases a couple of stand-alone singles, as well as a couple of collaborations with other artists. He makes his rounds around the music world, as if showing off that – Look! He’s clean and back again! Probably stars in a movie while, in the background, he writes for other artists.

In his personal life, he’s thrown himself full force into the recovery program. And everything’s great! He’s so busy that he has no time to think about drugs!

During this time, there is more back-and-forths between Scanlan and Pike. Nothing substantial but little somethings, nonetheless. This is when Scanlan makes a lot of promises to Grog about visiting, but he never falls through, always too afraid that he’s not ready to face Pike yet. Not yet.

In June 2014, he tweets ‘#E6E6FA’, the color code for Lavender. He follows the tweet up with more cryptic social media posts that hint of his presence back in the studio.

Scanlan releases the first single to his upcoming album in late September 2014. It is included on an EP in February 2015, the EP includes previously unreleased B-sides from Aubergine. Scanlan releases it with an apology for the long wait.

Wilhand suffers an accident in early November 2015. Grog leaves competitive fighting to be close to home. Pike takes over as Head Cleric at the temple. Pike is 25. Scanlan is 29.

November 15, on the night before her first sermon, Scanlan and Pike have late night Skype call. This is when Scanlan writes ‘Late Night Angel’, a last minute addition to his album tracklist.

Scanlan releases his third album, Lavender, in May 2016. The touring is far less intense than for Aubergine. He plays primarily within the US with a few big shows in big-ticket international cities. The Lavender tour runs from late May 2016-December 2016.

Afterwards, Scanlan goes radio silent. He’s beginning to run out of steam. Recovery feels repetitive and pointless. Pike never made it to any of his Lavender shows. His grand plans to woo her were never seen to fruition. Though they communicate regularly, he feels more alone than ever. With no drugs or parties or touring to distract him, Scanlan begins to spiral again.

The Sun Always Rises starts in March 2018.

Chapter 17 takes place in March 2019.

Scanlan does a small, “farewell” tour from April 2019-September 2019.

[ms-m-astrologer]

Monday, September 6, 2021

Does anyone else follow Linda G (the Comanche psychic) on YouTube? She’s so talented and generous - one of the few people who predicted C19, in August 2019 IIRC. Linda is a Virgo and came up with the perfect Virgo prayer: “Please help me help myself and others.” (The “please” is my own addition - when my Leo son was young, he insisted we always say “please” when we prayed.) Anyway, if you’re really stumped about an intention for this Virgo New Moon, may I suggest that one? It will also work for those of us who tend to bite off more than we can chew, and there is plenty of that to go around today, too. We have so many good intentions, it would be foolish to squander them! Mercury moving into its pre-retrograde shadow today, less than six hours before the New Moon (in one of Mercury’s signs), is a hint that what we set in action today may take us on some unexpected journeys.

What's happening when:

Lunar Phase: Balsamic Moon (let go of the past, envision the future)

Moon/Virgo

Mars/Virgo trine Pluto Rx/Capricorn, 6:20 am MDT

Venus/Libra trine Jupiter Rx/Aquarius, 7:05 am MDT

Mars/Virgo inconjunct Eris Rx/Aries, 9:15 am MDT

Mercury/Libra sesquare Jupiter RX/Aquarius, 11:28 am MDT

Transiting Mercury enters pre-retrograde shadow, 10:08 Libra, 1:07 pm MDT

Lunar Phase: New Moon (set a new intention for the month), 14:38 Virgo, 6:52 pm MDT

Sun/Virgo trine Uranus Rx/Taurus, 7:29 pm MDT

Mars/Virgo inconjunct Jupiter Rx/Aquarius, 9:50 pm MDT

Looking ahead to Tuesday: partnership concerns

(Please note that MDT is six hours behind UT.)

[andromeda1023]

Last transit of Mercury until 2032.

Mercury – the innermost planet of our solar system – will transit the sun on November 11, 2019. In other words, Mercury will pass directly in front of the sun and be visible through telescopes with solar filters as a small black dot crossing the sun’s face. It’ll be visible in part from most of Earth’s globe. The entire transit is visible from South America, eastern North America, and far-western Africa.

The last transit of Mercury was in 2016. The next one won’t be until 2032. (For the Northern Hemisphere it won’t be until 2049)

Be aware that this is a morning event on November 11, according to U.S. clocks. Mercury will come into view on the sun’s face around 7:36 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (12:36 UTC; translate UTC to your time) on November 11. It’ll make a leisurely journey across the sun’s face, reaching greatest transit (closest to sun’s center) at approximately 10:20 a.m. EST (15:20 UTC) and finally exiting around 1:04 p.m. EST (18:04 UTC). The entire 5 1/2 hour path across the sun will be visible across the U.S. East – with magnification and proper solar filters – while those in the U.S. West can observe the transit already in progress after sunrise.

You need a telescope and solar filters to view the transit. Mercury’s diameter is only 1/194th of that of the sun, as seen from Earth. That’s why the eclipse master Fred Espenak recommends using a telescope with a magnification of 50 to 100 times for witnessing the event.

Unless you are well-versed with the telescope and how to properly use solar filters, we advise you to seek out a public program via a nearby observatory or astronomy club. Never look at the sun through a telescope.

What part of Earth will see the November 11 transit of Mercury? As shown on the worldwide chart above, the transit will be visible (at least in part) from most of the globe, with the exception of the shaded-out portion (Indonesia, most of Asia, and Australia). Mercury takes some 5 1/2 hours to cross the sun’s disk, and this transit of Mercury is entirely visible (given clear skies) from eastern North America, South America, the southern tip of Greenland, and far-western Africa.

For North America, the transit begins in the early morning hours on November 11. The eastern part of North America sees the start of the transit after sunrise November 11, whereas the western part sees the transit already in progress as the sun rises on November 11.

As for the world’s Eastern Hemisphere – Africa, Europe, and the Middle East  – the transit starts in the early afternoon November 11 in the westernmost parts of Africa and Europe, and in the late afternoon November 11 in eastern Europe and the Middle East. In New Zealand, the transit is in process as the sun rises on November 12.

We provide the geocentric (Earth-centered) contact times of the transit of Mercury in Universal Time (UTC). If you know how to convert Universal Time to your local time (here’s how to do it), you can get a good approximation of the contact times for the Mercury transit for your part of the world. NOTE: Because the transit is viewed from the Earth’s surface, instead of the Earth’s center, the contact times could differ from the geocentric contact times by up to a minute.

November 11 transit times in Universal Time

First contact (ingress, exterior): 12:35:27 UT Second contact (ingress, interior): 12:37:08 UT Greatest transit: 15:19:48 UT Third contact (egress, interior): 18:02:33 UT Fourth contact (egress, exterior): 18:04:14 UT

For further reading, more info, times in different time zones, video, pictures: https://earthsky.org/tonight/transit-of-mercury-on-november-11-2019

Photo at top: Mercury transit, May 9, 2016 via @altair_astro on Twitter.

The entire November 11, 2019, transit is visible from South America, eastern North America, and far-western Africa. Image via Eclipsewise.

[captainpotassium]

A Mercury Transit Sequence via NASA https://ift.tt/2Q0hyhb

Tomorrow -- Monday -- Mercury will cross the face of the Sun, as seen from Earth. Called a transit, the last time this happened was in 2016. Because the plane of Mercury's orbit is not exactly coincident with the plane of Earth's orbit, Mercury usually appears to pass over or under the Sun. The featured time-lapse sequence, superimposed on a single frame, was taken from a balcony in Belgium shows the entire transit of 2003 May 7. That solar crossing lasted over five hours, so that the above 23 images were taken roughly 15 minutes apart. The north pole of the Sun, the Earth's orbit, and Mercury's orbit, although all different, all occur in directions slightly above the left of the image. Near the center and on the far right, sunspots are visible. After Monday, the next transit of Mercury will occur in 2032.

(Published November 10, 2019)

[scifigeneration]

NASA's Parker Solar Probe sheds new light on the sun

In August 2018, NASA's Parker Solar Probe launched to space, soon becoming the closest-ever spacecraft to the Sun. With cutting-edge scientific instruments to measure the environment around the spacecraft, Parker Solar Probe has completed three of 24 planned passes through never-before-explored parts of the Sun's atmosphere, the corona. On Dec. 4, 2019, four new papers in the journal Nature describe what scientists have learned from this unprecedented exploration of our star -- and what they look forward to learning next.

These findings reveal new information about the behavior of the material and particles that speed away from the Sun, bringing scientists closer to answering fundamental questions about the physics of our star. In the quest to protect astronauts and technology in space, the information Parker has uncovered about how the Sun constantly ejects material and energy will help scientists re-write the models we use to understand and predict the space weather around our planet and understand the process by which stars are created and evolve.

"This first data from Parker reveals our star, the Sun, in new and surprising ways," said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for science at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Observing the Sun up close rather than from a much greater distance is giving us an unprecedented view into important solar phenomena and how they affect us on Earth, and gives us new insights relevant to the understanding of active stars across galaxies. It's just the beginning of an incredibly exciting time for heliophysics with Parker at the vanguard of new discoveries."

Though it may seem placid to us here on Earth, the Sun is anything but quiet. Our star is magnetically active, unleashing powerful bursts of light, deluges of particles moving near the speed of light and billion-ton clouds of magnetized material. All this activity affects our planet, injecting damaging particles into the space where our satellites and astronauts fly, disrupting communications and navigation signals, and even -- when intense -- triggering power outages. It's been happening for the Sun's entire 5-billion-year lifetime, and will continue to shape the destinies of Earth and the other planets in our solar system into the future.

"The Sun has fascinated humanity for our entire existence," said Nour E. Raouafi, project scientist for Parker Solar Probe at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, which built and manages the mission for NASA. "We've learned a great deal about our star in the past several decades, but we really needed a mission like Parker Solar Probe to go into the Sun's atmosphere. It's only there that we can really learn the details of these complex solar processes. And what we've learned in just these three solar orbits alone has changed a lot of what we know about the Sun."

What happens on the Sun is critical to understanding how it shapes the space around us. Most of the material that escapes the Sun is part of the solar wind, a continual outflow of solar material that bathes the entire solar system. This ionized gas, called plasma, carries with it the Sun's magnetic field, stretching it out through the solar system in a giant bubble that spans more than 10 billion miles.

The dynamic solar wind

Observed near Earth, the solar wind is a relatively uniform flow of plasma, with occasional turbulent tumbles. But by that point it's traveled over ninety million miles -- and the signatures of the Sun's exact mechanisms for heating and accelerating the solar wind are wiped out. Closer to the solar wind's source, Parker Solar Probe saw a much different picture: a complicated, active system.

"The complexity was mind-blowing when we first started looking at the data," said Stuart Bale, the University of California, Berkeley, lead for Parker Solar Probe's FIELDS instrument suite, which studies the scale and shape of electric and magnetic fields. "Now, I've gotten used to it. But when I show colleagues for the first time, they're just blown away." From Parker's vantage point 15 million miles from the Sun, Bale explained, the solar wind is much more impulsive and unstable than what we see near Earth.

Like the Sun itself, the solar wind is made up of plasma, where negatively charged electrons have separated from positively charged ions, creating a sea of free-floating particles with individual electric charge. These free-floating particles mean plasma carries electric and magnetic fields, and changes in the plasma often make marks on those fields. The FIELDS instruments surveyed the state of the solar wind by measuring and carefully analyzing how the electric and magnetic fields around the spacecraft changed over time, along with measuring waves in the nearby plasma.

These measurements showed quick reversals in the magnetic field and sudden, faster-moving jets of material -- all characteristics that make the solar wind more turbulent. These details are key to understanding how the wind disperses energy as it flows away from the Sun and throughout the solar system.

One type of event in particular drew the eye of the science teams: flips in the direction of the magnetic field, which flows out from the Sun, embedded in the solar wind. These reversals -- dubbed "switchbacks" -- last anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes as they flow over Parker Solar Probe. During a switchback, the magnetic field whips back on itself until it is pointed almost directly back at the Sun. Together, FIELDS and SWEAP, the solar wind instrument suite led by the University of Michigan and managed by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, measured clusters of switchbacks throughout Parker Solar Probe's first two flybys.

"Waves have been seen in the solar wind from the start of the space age, and we assumed that closer to the Sun the waves would get stronger, but we were not expecting to see them organize into these coherent structured velocity spikes," said Justin Kasper, principal investigator for SWEAP -- short for Solar Wind Electrons Alphas and Protons -- at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. "We are detecting remnants of structures from the Sun being hurled into space and violently changing the organization of the flows and magnetic field. This will dramatically change our theories for how the corona and solar wind are being heated."

The exact source of the switchbacks isn't yet understood, but Parker Solar Probe's measurements have allowed scientists to narrow down the possibilities.

Among the many particles that perpetually stream from the Sun are a constant beam of fast-moving electrons, which ride along the Sun's magnetic field lines out into the solar system. These electrons always flow strictly along the shape of the field lines moving out from the Sun, regardless of whether the north pole of the magnetic field in that particular region is pointing towards or away from the Sun. But Parker Solar Probe measured this flow of electrons going in the opposite direction, flipping back towards the Sun -- showing that the magnetic field itself must be bending back towards the Sun, rather than Parker Solar Probe merely encountering a different magnetic field line from the Sun that points in the opposite direction. This suggests that the switchbacks are kinks in the magnetic field -- localized disturbances traveling away from the Sun, rather than a change in the magnetic field as it emerges from the Sun.

Parker Solar Probe's observations of the switchbacks suggest that these events will grow even more common as the spacecraft gets closer to the Sun. The mission's next solar encounter on Jan. 29, 2020, will carry the spacecraft nearer to the Sun than ever before, and may shed new light on this process. Not only does such information help change our understanding of what causes the solar wind and space weather around us, it also helps us understand a fundamental process of how stars work and how they release energy into their environment.

The rotating solar wind

Some of Parker Solar Probe's measurements are bringing scientists closer to answers to decades-old questions. One such question is about how, exactly, the solar wind flows out from the Sun.

Near Earth, we see the solar wind flowing almost radially -- meaning it's streaming directly from the Sun, straight out in all directions. But the Sun rotates as it releases the solar wind; before it breaks free, the solar wind was spinning along with it. This is a bit like children riding on a playground park carousel -- the atmosphere rotates with the Sun much like the outer part of the carousel rotates, but the farther you go from the center, the faster you are moving in space. A child on the edge might jump off and would, at that point, move in a straight line outward, rather than continue rotating. In a similar way, there's some point between the Sun and Earth, the solar wind transitions from rotating along with the Sun to flowing directly outwards, or radially, like we see from Earth.

Exactly where the solar wind transitions from a rotational flow to a perfectly radial flow has implications for how the Sun sheds energy. Finding that point may help us better understand the lifecycle of other stars or the formation of protoplanetary disks, the dense disks of gas and dust around young stars that eventually coalesce into planets.

Now, for the first time -- rather than just seeing that straight flow that we see near Earth -- Parker Solar Probe was able to observe the solar wind while it was still rotating. It's as if Parker Solar Probe got a view of the whirling carousel directly for the first time, not just the children jumping off it. Parker Solar Probe's solar wind instrument detected rotation starting more than 20 million miles from the Sun, and as Parker approached its perihelion point, the speed of the rotation increased. The strength of the circulation was stronger than many scientists had predicted, but it also transitioned more quickly than predicted to an outward flow, which is what helps mask these effects from where we usually sit, about 93 million miles from the Sun.

"The large rotational flow of the solar wind seen during the first encounters has been a real surprise," said Kasper. "While we hoped to eventually see rotational motion closer to the Sun, the high speeds we are seeing in these first encounters is nearly ten times larger than predicted by the standard models."

Dust near the Sun

Another question approaching an answer is the elusive dust-free zone. Our solar system is awash in dust -- the cosmic crumbs of collisions that formed planets, asteroids, comets and other celestial bodies billions of years ago. Scientists have long suspected that, close to the Sun, this dust would be heated to high temperatures by powerful sunlight, turning it into a gas and creating a dust-free region around the Sun. But no one had ever observed it.

For the first time, Parker Solar Probe's imagers saw the cosmic dust begin to thin out. Because WISPR -- Parker Solar Probe's imaging instrument, led by the Naval Research Lab -- looks out the side of the spacecraft, it can see wide swaths of the corona and solar wind, including regions closer to the Sun. These images show dust starting to thin a little over 7 million miles from the Sun, and this decrease in dust continues steadily to the current limits of WISPR's measurements at a little over 4 million miles from the Sun.

"This dust-free zone was predicted decades ago, but has never been seen before," said Russ Howard, principal investigator for the WISPR suite -- short for Wide-field Imager for Solar Probe -- at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. "We are now seeing what's happening to the dust near the Sun."

At the rate of thinning, scientists expect to see a truly dust-free zone starting a little more than 2-3 million miles from the Sun -- meaning Parker Solar Probe could observe the dust-free zone as early as 2020, when its sixth flyby of the Sun will carry it closer to our star than ever before.

Putting space weather under a microscope

Parker Solar Probe's measurements have given us a new perspective on two types of space weather events: energetic particle storms and coronal mass ejections.

Tiny particles -- both electrons and ions -- are accelerated by solar activity, creating storms of energetic particles. Events on the Sun can send these particles rocketing out into the solar system at nearly the speed of light, meaning they reach Earth in under half an hour and can impact other worlds on similarly short time scales. These particles carry a lot of energy, so they can damage spacecraft electronics and even endanger astronauts, especially those in deep space, outside the protection of Earth's magnetic field -- and the short warning time for such particles makes them difficult to avoid.

Understanding exactly how these particles are accelerated to such high speeds is crucial. But even though they zip to Earth in as little as a few minutes, that's still enough time for the particles to lose the signatures of the processes that accelerated them in the first place. By whipping around the Sun at just a few million miles away, Parker Solar Probe can measure these particles just after they've left the Sun, shedding new light on how they are released.

Already, Parker Solar Probe's IS?IS instruments, led by Princeton University, have measured several never-before-seen energetic particle events -- events so small that all trace of them is lost before they reach Earth or any of our near-Earth satellites. These instruments have also measured a rare type of particle burst with a particularly high number of heavier elements -- suggesting that both types of events may be more common than scientists previously thought.

"It's amazing -- even at solar minimum conditions, the Sun produces many more tiny energetic particle events than we ever thought," said David McComas, principal investigator for the Integrated Science Investigation of the Sun suite, or IS?IS, at Princeton University in New Jersey. "These measurements will help us unravel the sources, acceleration, and transport of solar energetic particles and ultimately better protect satellites and astronauts in the future."

Data from the WISPR instruments also provided unprecedented detail on structures in the corona and solar wind -- including coronal mass ejections, billion-ton clouds of solar material that the Sun sends hurtling out into the solar system. CMEs can trigger a range of effects on Earth and other worlds, from sparking auroras to inducing electric currents that can damage power grids and pipelines. WISPR's unique perspective, looking alongside such events as they travel away from the Sun, has already shed new light on the range of events our star can unleash.

"Since Parker Solar Probe was matching the Sun's rotation, we could watch the outflow of material for days and see the evolution of structures," said Howard. "Observations near Earth have made us think that fine structures in the corona segue into a smooth flow, and we're finding out that's not true. This will help us do better modeling of how events travel between the Sun and Earth."

As Parker Solar Probe continues on its journey, it will make 21 more close approaches to the Sun at progressively closer distances, culminating in three orbits a mere 3.83 million miles from the solar surface.

"The Sun is the only star we can examine this closely," said Nicola Fox, director of the Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters. "Getting data at the source is already revolutionizing our understanding of our own star and stars across the universe. Our little spacecraft is soldiering through brutal conditions to send home startling and exciting revelations."

Data from Parker Solar Probe's first two solar encounters is available to the public online:

https://blogs.nasa.gov/parkersolarprobe/2019/11/12/first-parker-solar-probe-science-data-released-to-public/

Parker Solar Probe is part of NASA's Living with a Star program to explore aspects of the Sun-Earth system that directly affect life and society. The Living with a Star program is managed by the agency's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Johns Hopkins APL designed, built and operates the spacecraft

[stefany]

A Mercury Transit Sequence Tomorrow -- Monday -- Mercury will cross the face of the Sun, as seen from Earth. Called a transit, the last time this happened was in 2016. Because the plane of Mercury's orbit is not exactly coincident with the plane of Earth's orbit, Mercury usually appears to pass over or under the Sun. The featured time-lapse sequence, superimposed on a single frame, was taken from a balcony in Belgium shows the entire transit of 2003 May 7. That solar crossing lasted over five hours, so that the above 23 images were taken roughly 15 minutes apart. The north pole of the Sun, the Earth's orbit, and Mercury's orbit, although all different, all occur in directions slightly above the left of the image. Near the center and on the far right, sunspots are visible. After Monday, the next transit of Mercury will occur in 2032. November 10, 2019 via Space https://ift.tt/2Q0hyhb

[bearingwater]

April Forecast for Aquarius

Synergies abound! Until April 20, the Sun is in Aries and your third house of kindred spirits and communication. You’ve got ideas to share and things to express—and you’ll utilize every platform at your disposal. After a month of Mercury retrograde (from March 5 to 28) imposing a gag order on your genius, you’re ready to let those creative concepts out of the bottle. Writing, teaching and media outlets could be your playgrounds.

The April 5 Aries new moon sets the stage for a brand-new project or collaboration. With the moon in your third house of local affairs, you might find the perfect “test kitchen” right in your neighborhood. Look for resources in your own backyard or pilot a community project, from a pop-up shop to a trunk show to a small event where you can teach your new methodology. A conversation or a seed of an idea could blossom into something truly meaningful between today and the October 13 Aries full moon.

If you feel intellectual or creative chemistry with someone this month, explore! A person you meet near the new moon could turn out to be a synergistic supporter or partner in crime. Don’t rush to anoint anyone your brand-new BFF though, Aquarius. From April 10 to August 11, expansive Jupiter will be retrograde (backward) in Sagittarius your eleventh house of groups and friendships. Let the relationship unfold in due time. Only when you see who a person is through various situations will you know how trustworthy and solid they are.

Bountiful Jupiter is making its once-every-12-years visit to Sagittarius from November 8, 2018, until December 2, 2019. Your connections are going through an important evolution and possibly a few growing pains. Perhaps you’ve synced up with an avant-garde new crew or joined a group endeavor. Since the eleventh house rules technology, your social media presence could have blossomed this year. Maybe you got involved in an exciting digital venture.

Global Jupiter is bringing interesting friends and like-minded people your way in droves, perhaps from far-flung places. But have you rushed into a collaboration too quickly? You might feel a bit stifled by a group project now, which could stir a rebellious streak if you don’t get some breathing room. As much as you like a shared victory, you can’t do it at the expense of your individuality. Rather than capsize a team effort, find a way to put your unique stamp on a project or carve out something that’s yours and yours alone. Pull back and do that over the spring and summer, then you can rejoin the crowd in the fall. If you’ve sidelined a few loyal, longtime friends to be part of a new circle, use the retrograde to reconnect since these rear-facing transits connect us to our past.

Jupiter is the first of three slow-moving outer planets to start a retrograde this month, to be followed in late April by Saturn and Pluto. These luminaries make their U-turns around the same time most years, so it’s nothing to panic about at all. In fact, these celestial slowdowns can be a blessing, giving you the spring and summer to soul-search, recalibrate and correct course.

So, Aquarius, what DO you really want? A visionary moment arrives on April 19, when the Libra full moon illuminates your ninth house of big-picture goals. Under the light of this full moon, you’ll see sweeping new possibilities (ah!). You could be inspired to take a leap of faith, especially since this is the rare second Libra full moon of 2019. The first, a supermoon, fell on March 20—smack in the middle of Mercury retrograde. The conditions weren’t totally ripe for risks then, but after a month of letting the energy settle, you could be ready to make your big move. From travel to launching a startup to spreading your message far and wide, this no-limits lunation could bring a huge epiphany around your life purpose—AND the ideal platform for expressing it.

Your energy gets a bit more earthbound the next day, when the Sun begins its annual visit to Taurus and your anchoring fourth house of home and family. Slow down a little and make sure your roots are firmly planted before you blast into the Next Big Thing. Connect with loved ones, rejuvenate with self-care and feather your nest.

That said, you may experience a shakeup in your foundation on April 22, when the Sun makes its annual conjunction (meetup) with your co-ruler, disruptor Uranus. There could be a sudden change of residents under your roof, an unexpected urge to move or a need to pull up the stakes and relocate. You might decide to renovate, redecorate or make some other radical shift to your lifestyle. While that’s all well and good, this IS a one-day transit, and the dust will settle not long after. So unless you absolutely MUST make a swift change, you might be better off capturing your ideas then following up with due diligence. Start with a Pinterest board instead of impulsively painting a wall or ordering all new furniture.

The Sun-Uranus conjunction in this family zone could also bring a tense moment with a relative. The fourth house is linked to mothers and women whereas the Sun is one of the astrological symbols for a father figure. Unresolved anger might erupt out of the blue, or you might need to deal with a change related to a parent.

Resolutions take time, especially when you get to the root of them, and you’ll have plenty of time for that over the spring and summer. Transformational Pluto will be retrograde in Capricorn and your twelfth house of endings from April 24 to October 3, followed by Saturn in this same sector from April 29 to September 18. You may need to excavate some old emotions for the purpose of examination and healing. Forgiveness or closure work could be on the agenda—and with these two heavyweights in your twelfth house, the only way around it is through it.

These five-month retrogrades can be rich times for developing an artistic project or honing your spiritual practices and abilities. You may need to go a little “off the grid” to meet the muse—and she may only show up in the quiet spaces. Some media- and phone-free time would benefit you greatly now. Where have things gotten excessive in your life? Scale back, surrender and reduce the ruckus. Powerful messages and guidance will come to you if you can find that space of inner calm.

Love & Romance

Play for keeps or just keep playing? You’ll need to answer that for yourself before you can expect someone else to fill a role, Aquarius. With love planet Venus in dreamy Pisces until April 20, you might still be holding out for something with a fairy-tale ending. Yet Venus is in your second house of pragmatism and security, so you realize everything requires SOME degree of compromise. If you’re not clear about what you want and need, you won’t be able to call in the person who can satisfy that. Even if you’re in a relationship, you could be sending out mixed messages about what’s important to you: Is it enchantment you want or a rock-solid guarantee?

Confusing matters more, over in your passionate fifth house, lusty Mars is revving his engines in easily distracted Gemini all month (from March 31 to May 15), which can tempt you to do the very things that will UNDO stability. You could be attracted to excitement with an edge, which could make you shortsighted in your choices. It’s not easy to reconcile—and that’s is where self-awareness comes in. Apply yours liberally when you feel whipped about by dueling desires and temptations.

Self-discipline might be totally MIA on April 15, when Venus squares off with indie-spirited Jupiter in its own liberated sign of Sagittarius. You want to have your gluten-free cupcake and eat it too—and maybe take a few bites of someone else’s as well. Don’t paint yourself into a corner that you can’t get out of, Aquarius. Be honest with your love interest (and yourself!) and admit you’re not sure what’s best for you at the moment.

Venus scurries into straight-shooting Aries and your communication center on April 20, which might begin to give you the clarity you so desperately seek. Hopefully you didn’t burn any bridges earlier in the month. By staying open and amenable to working things out, you can get things back on track—and if you’re finally ready, the fast track.

Key Dates

April 10: Venus-Neptune Meetup Pampering: incoming! Today marks the annual alignment of romantic Venus and dreamy Neptune in your second house of sensual luxury. You don’t have to reallocate a rent payment to enjoy some world-class indulgences, like a hot-stone massage or a deliciously decadent meal. And if you can enjoy this with your favorite plus-one, all the better!

Money & Career

You’ve got ideas for days, Aquarius! And finally, you also have the green light to express them. Last month, communication planet Mercury was retrograde from March 5 to 28, making it hard to get a straight answer or clear direction. Now that the mixed-message mania is over, you can forge ahead. The Sun is in Aries and your communicative third house until April 20, perfect for writing, teaching and learning…or just to put your thoughts together into something original.

The April 5 Aries new moon could deliver an aha moment or spark a conversation that leads to more. Explore collaboration with a like-minded person and consider testing your synergy on a trial project. Over the next six months, this could potentially develop into more. But tread slowly, because risk taker Jupiter will turn retrograde (backward) in your collaborative eleventh house from April 10 to August 11.

Focus on ramping up your own star power before you share the stage with too many people. With energizer Mars in Gemini heating up your creativity zone all month, your inner performer/artist needs an outlet—and a spotlight! The April 19 Libra full moon in your visionary ninth house could bring a major epiphany about your purpose. An opportunity to travel, study or showcase your ideas through media could be part of this magical moment. The next day, the Sun enters Taurus and your domestic fourth house for a month, conjoining inventive Uranus on April 22. Carve out an “innovation station” at home because some of your best ideas could come to you while you’re relaxing at Chateau Water Bearer. Meditation, journaling and creative visualization could turn up serious epiphanies with metaphysical Pluto retrograde in your subconscious twelfth house from April 24 to October 3, joined by structured Saturn retrograde here from April 29 to September 18. If you have healing or artistic gifts, consider working with a coach or getting certified by a master trainer.

Key Dates

April 12: Mercury-Jupiter Square Watch that you don’t exaggerate or make promises you can’t keep. It’s not that you’re trying to deceive anyone…it’s just that exuberant Jupiter can inflate reality, especially when it’s squaring the communication planet! If anything, undersell yourself or what you can do. People will respect your humility—and then be impressed when you “overdeliver”!

Love Days: 9, 14 Money Days: 20, 29 Luck Days: 18, 27 Off Days: 11, 16, 24

[theeverlastingshade]

Favorite EP of 2019: Feet of Clay- Earl Sweatshirt

Earl Sweatshirt’s masterful 2018 LP Some Rap Songs may have cemented his status as one of the greatest rappers alive, but with his recently released second EP Feet of Clay he proved that he’s much further beyond his contemporaries than anyone could have realized. On a purely technical level he’s been among the most talented rappers alive since he was 15, and while his writing has only gotten better with each release, FoC, like SRS before it, actively pushes the form to new heights. FoC is dense, deconstructionist rap that fundamentally challenges what can fit within that context. Earl’s rapping often sidesteps the beats entirely, and his vocals aren’t mixed neatly over them so much as they simply collide through them. FoC is hip hop first and foremost, but like SRS it incorporates elements of avant-garde jazz, noise, and ambient, and to strictly refer to the music as the former betrays the intricacies of his approach. Understandably, it’s been the most polarizing release of his date. Even while clocking in at 15 minutes there’s an absurd amount to unpack, but spend some time with FoC and it will reward your patience several times over.

FoC is the ideal follow-up to SRS in that it’s a work within the same vein as the latter but it pushes that same aesthetic towards embracing more abstract compositions, flows, and imagery. The production is handled primarily by Earl (with The Alchemist having produced “Mtomb” and Ovrkast having produced “El Toro Combo Meal”) and like its predecessor the beats consist of loop-based compositions defined by jarring, dissonant textures and murky ambience. FoC was described by Earl as “a collection of observations and feelings recorded during the death throes of a crumbling empire” and that sense of gloom and decay is realized to great effect on songs like “74” and “Tisk Tisk / Cookies”. It’s still a marvel to hear not only how Earl manages to rap over such seemingly counterintuitive beats, but also in the way that he’s developed as a producer. The conversation around Earl doesn’t acknowledge the impressive producer that he blossomed into nearly enough. Whether it’s the blaring accordion wail that perpetually threatens to unravel “East” at every turn or the loops from what sounds like a decomposing piano that frame “Tisk Tisk / Cookies” Earl’s never made bolder strides as a producer and the sonic lane that he’s carving out for himself is increasingly sounding like the work of no one else.

More so than anything else, the biggest draw here is once more the thrill of simply listening to Earl rap. There’s no other rapper alive that writes and raps as thoughtfully or as sharply as Earl. FoC is the latest in a progression of releases that finds him continuing to chisel down his ideas until only the barest essentials remain. The songs are succinct and economical, and feature some of Earl’s most unconventional flows with writing as clever and bleak as he’s proven capable on each of his past releases. While “Peanut” and “Riot” off of SRS were conceived after his father’s passing, FoC is the first release that Earl wrote and recorded in the wake of his passing. Unsurprisingly, FoC is the most insular release within a career that’s been defined by that descriptor. Earl tackles substance abuse, depression, healing, mourning, and memories of the person he once was with his sharp eye for detail and an increasingly wise beyond-his-years perspective. Nothing is heavy handed or mopey, but there’s a rawness to it that pervades even the most seemingly carefree moments. Given the greater context under which it was conceived, FoC feels like the most honest release that I’ve heard all year.

“Come get to know me at my innermost/My family business anguish, now I need atonement” Earl raps on “OD” referencing the family strife from his father leaving him when he was a child up through his death on January 3 2018. The song ends with a look back on his youth which was abruptly cut short when his EARL mixtape blew up “Feeling rushed, grew up quick/Trip around the sun, this my 25th, give it up/Gin and rum/We wasn’t supposed to be alive, no funny shit”. On “East” Earl reflects on losses and severed relationships in addition to the desire for his actions in life to live on after him despite believing in the inherent meaningless in the actions of humans “I wait to be the light shimmering from a star/Cognitive dissonance shattered and the necessary venom restored/As if it matters if you think it matters anymore”. On closer “4N” Earl strives for perseverance while holding down his ideals “Bend, we don’t break, swing we don’t miss/We just might be okay, the same voltage/Hold the charge like the phone lit/No regards for the bullshit” and ends FoC with a remark on the emotional purging that birthed it while suggesting that there’s still more than he can do for himself and others “It’s all I could spill/There’s more I could do”.

Although FoC doesn’t match the consistency of SRS the highs are just as strong as anything that Earl has ever released. Album opener “74” perfectly sets the tone for what’s to come with Earl unloading a barrage of bars the second the song starts over morose, lo-fi organ loops. It’s immediately jarring to hear how thoroughly he disregards the instrumental, approaching his delivery almost like free-jazz. “El Toro Combo Meal” finds Mavi delivering one of the EPs three features (the others being Mach-Hommy on “4N” and Liv.E on “Mtomb”), and it’s a rare show-stopping moment where an underdog actually holds his own before Earl finishes with a strong verse that touches on the isolation that he’s felt throughout his life. He shouts out recently passed beat music pioneer Ras G, references the Hayao Miyazaki film Spirited Away, the 04-05 Detroit Pistons, and Harry Potter, and reflects on the unfortunate human tendency to reignite old feuds. And on the phenomenal “Tisk Tisk / Cookies” Earl delivers one of the best verses that I’ve heard all year as he reflects on the loss of a loved one “Reelin’ from loss, yeah/Inner remorse, divorce your spirit and corpse, corpse/I tell you I’m hearing it all/The wisdom that’s in your remarks/The silliness in you I Mourn/The moments that’s tender and soft/I’m in ‘em, the memories got strong”.

FoC is unlikely to be embraced by anyone that was left cold by SRS, but those that are completely on board with Earl’s artistic growth have likely found plenty to love here. Every song on FoC demonstrates an unrelenting willingness on Earl’s part to forgo complacency and push his claustrophobic music to bracing new heights. FoC, like SRS before it, is heavily influenced by contemporary New York City underground hip-hop, and on both releases Earl pushed that scene’s lo-fi jazz-flecked grit in compelling new directions. FoC successfully distills the tension of noise music, the fleeting romanticism of ambient, and the chaotic unpredictability of free-jazz, resulting in music that’s far more exciting and unpredictable than what the vast majority of his contemporaries are doing. There’s no question that FoC is an inaccessible, and even alienating listen, but I’ve heard very few releases from 2019 that have packed as much compassion, intelligence, and humanity into them despite necessitating such patience. Earl has transitioned from being one of the most compelling rappers alive to transcending the form entirely.

Essentials: “Tisk Tisk / Cookies”, “El Toro Combo Meal” ft. Mavi, “74”

[astrology-with-charu]

#Gemini March 2020 #Astrology #Horoscope

Gemini 23 Feb New Moon activates a new life path which comes with dissolution of an old path - aim is to get you in touch with you - real you without ego boosting props creating strong faith & self belief. March is when it all come fully light as Mercury goes direct after 9th in your house of career!

The Video - https://youtu.be/3NIBLjxrsV8

Gemini March 2020 Astrology Horoscope - The Details

If you have your rising sun moon or ascendant in zodiac star sign of Gemini this is the Mar 2020 reading for you.

Gemini the month of March & Pisces Season brings focus to your career- it’s a critical part of your life & birth chart getting activated here in no uncertain terms as not only we have the new moon in Pisces giving us a new start in career, we also have your ruler Mercury retrograde in Pisces in your career & we have Neptune in Pisces in your career as well.

Mercury goes retrograde in our career house when we are on heels of a big shift in our career & we need further ground work, research, reconsideration, reorientation before we take firm steps. That’s what is happening till 9 March even though there is a clear push, desire and intensity to have a total rebirth of who you are & you would do it with ease but you do need to review thoroughly who you want to become and what is that you truly want, what is your messaging when it comes to your networking style, how do you want to show up in career and what’s your strategy to market or launch the new you. During this time till 9 March I don’t normally suggest to sign new papers or finalise new ideas or jobs or careers as you are in the process of review and there is more information yet to come. If you have to sign keep room for modifications & for sure plan ahead, lay down the groundwork. I spoke of Mercury retrograde in details in below video & as Mercury rules you - it defines your external reality, your career, home, family, place of living -this is an important transit for you. Mercury retrograde will be most strongly felt by 0-13° Gemini or 22 May to 3 Jun born. There could be rework of a work project that could come up & we should be extra careful in business communications till 9 March. For a very limited few of you - 28° to 30° Gemini or around 17-21 Jun born an important publication or media campaign could come for review or travel snags might be experienced. After 5 Jun born or Gemini 15-30° will be well placed to look back at March 2019 to see if any career lessons or project inputs might come handy as that’s when this aspect was last repeated at your degrees. This won’t repeat till 2026.

https://youtu.be/ATsV-6P5yOs

Neptune is in your career house as well, especially influencing 18° Gemini or around 9 Jun born - this isn’t the easiest of the transit as it aims to dissolve our old self image, old ego boosting things cause it wants you to get in touch with you, real you, without any external props - aim being to create strong sense of self & faith in you which you need, to make your new path a success. It’s a spiritual & sometimes religious journey of self discovery which would dissolve your old life path cause a more inspirational & real one awaits for you. Fake self concepts fall off on the way to it.

On 25 February Mars in Capricorn is meeting south node or Ketu in Capricorn - this is a very strong aspects to detox cut ties from past and follow through on your own path which many would advice you not to walk on as it looks tough from afar - you are driven by something from deep within here - intense determination to move in a given direction generated by a deep instinct - you just know and it’s already felt so you might have already begun.

You will find both opportunities and energy to merge your talents and resources with others as Jupiter in Capricorn in your house of joint resources brings opportunities to merge with others - financially, in skills & even sexually. Opportunities for loans, financial sponsorships, growth in spouse or partners’ financial resources become easy to come & we are fairly assertive to make our place - this is house of power and huge physical energy is released but you want to be careful on tempers and on taking physically rash actions especially 25-28 February. 20-23 March is a very positive, impactful & lucrative time - get support, loans and fin sponsorships though don’t overextend on credit. Most of 2020 Jupiter is in Capricorn enlarging your gains from others, from spouses & bringing opportunities with skilled & reliable partners as long as you stay structured & focused in how you manage your relationships with them and you go in prepared in pitches etc. Your spouse or business partner or sponsor can support your career growth enormously provided you seek support which you should.

Full moon in Virgo on 9 March brings home or family to focus especially till 24 March ~20° Gemini or 10 Jun born. You can feel sensitive around 9 March. Also 28 Feb and 3 Mar can be personally slightly stressful. 28 March can be very pleasant even indulgent personal day.

Sun will be in Aries after 19 March & you will find yourself busy being a social butterfly & networking till 19 Apr - new powerful connections can be made & you have opportunity to shift your social status or place in your network.

21 March on Saturn be in Aquarius, details below for ♊️ do see, it colours your next decade of growth, career direction & gains.

https://youtu.be/P7Qvp8kGACA