Spirit In Action

Change IS coming. WE can make it GOOD.


Leave a comment

Truthout Daily Digest Saturday, 7 June 2014

USDA and Submachine Guns: Latest Example of Mission Creep as Federal Policing Expands

Candice Bernd, Truthout: The Office of the Inspector General at the Department of Agriculture is seeking new semiautomatic submachine guns, and it’s only one of a slew of seemingly unlikely federal agencies to have acquired an armed police force ready to enforce an ever-expanding federal code.

Read the Article

“Going to Places That Scare Me: Personal Reflections on Challenging Male Supremacy”

Chris Crass, PM Press: Author Chris Crass reflects on the searing journey from seeing himself as a person who had internalized the logic of domination in relationships of power, privilege and oppression to working against all forms of oppression.

Read the Excerpt

Our Constitutional Liberties Are Eroding From Border to Border

Todd Miller, City Lights Books: The emergence of a ubiquitous surveillance state may be symbolized by the National Security Agency, but we should also be looking to the nation’s borders. It is there that a creeping militarization threatens to encroach upon the civil liberties of everybody in the United States.

Read the Excerpt

Walmart’s Top-to-Bottom Taxpayer Subsidies

Frank Clemente and Sarah Anderson, OtherWords: We’re all footing the bill for bonuses the company’s executives pocket and food stamps its underpaid workers obtain for survival.

Read the Article

A Modern-Day Debtors’ Prison? Judges Push Back Against the South’s Privatization Wave

Daniel Ross, Yes! Magazine: In Southern states, small-town courts have outsourced probation management to for-profit companies charging fees out of reach to the country’s poorest residents. Many people end up in jail for nonpayment.

Read the Article

All Hail Piketty, But Props for Pickett, Too

Sam Pizzigati, Inequality.org: While Thomas Piketty’s blockbuster book crumbled the myth that we’re living in a meritocracy, scientists Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett have compiled data showing people in more equal societies simply live longer, healthier and happier lives than people in more unequal societies like ours.

Read the Article

Is Marijuana Destroying California’s Water and Wildlife?

Anna Brones, Care2: Legalized medical marijuana in California is good for the pro-marijuana crowd, but it’s not as good for the pro-environment crowd. California’s marijuana industry is having a serious effect on wildlife and water, now aggravated by the state’s worst-ever drought.

Read the Article

What Will Privatizing Evictions Do to People in Illinois?

S.E. Smith, Care2: A new Illinois law allows property owners to turn to “third parties” to enforce eviction notices if the sheriff fails to do so. This includes private security companies, effectively privatizing the evictions process in Illinois.

Read the Article

China Trades Up in Latin America

Jill Richardson, Foreign Policy In Focus: In the past 15 years, China has gone from being a relatively insignificant economic partner in Latin America to the number one trading partner of some of the largest economies in the region, and is taking advantage of that to rally support for its positions at the United Nations.

Read the Article

Obama’s Flawed Emissions Proposal: Cap-And-Trade, “Offsets” Allow Plants to Pay to Pollute

Gaius Publius, AmericaBlog: Cap-and-trade is a let-you-down-easy way to regulate, and it generally lets the regulated industry decide how easy. In most places where it’s used to limit CO2 emissions, cap-and-trade is an industry enabler.

Read the Article

BuzzFlash

The BuzzFlash commentary for Truthout will return soon.

Bob Bergdahl Remains Calm at Center of Storm Over Son Released by Taliban

Read the Article at The Guardian

University Presidents Are Laughing All the Way to the Bank While the People Who Work For Them Are on Food Stamps

Read the Article at History News Network

GOP’s Firing Squad Idiocy: The Hypocrisy of “Humane Executions”

Read the Article at Salon

Feds Step Up Pressure for LA County Jail Reforms

Read the Article at the Los Angeles Times

It Wasn’t Abortion That Formed the Religious Right. It Was Support for Segregation

Read the Article at Slate

Guantánamo Closure Still in the Works as US Reduces Backlog of Detainees, Official Says

Read the Article at The Huffington Post

Death of Another Unarmed US Citizen Tests Border Patrol’s Use of Force Policy

Read the Article at ThinkProgress


Leave a comment

NorthPoint Astrology Journal June 9 to 15, 2014 Pam Younghans

Today‘s photo: Auroras near Gleichen, Alberta, Canada on June 7, 2014 (photo by Alan Dyer, posted on SpaceWeather.com)

TEASER WARNING! My teleclass covering the rest of 2014 is this Thursday! We’ll talk about what the planets will be doing each month for July through December, paying close attention to times of specific opportunity and challenge.

While this weekly NorthPoint Journal provides information to help us navigate the energies for the next seven days, having a trail map for a longer time frame helps us align our long-term intentions with the plan of the Universe. The class will also provide specifics about when the trail will be smooth and when it is likely to be rocky, and offer insights to help us take best advantage of the each condition.

My thanks to the many of you who have already signed up for the class! I look forward to sharing this time with you.

If you’re ready to register, or if you’d like to read a more complete class description, just click here: Finding the Trail Home. I’m also including a bit more about the class at the end of today‘s journal. Remember that you can either participate live or use your registration to access the audio replay and slideshow after the class airs.

Now, on to this week’s astrology news:

WE SPOKE last week about Neptune starting its retrograde (backward) phase on Monday — but it bears repeating that this week may feel especially foggy due to Neptune’s strengthened influence. It may also be a time of of either heightened idealism or disillusionment, depending on how Neptune is working with your natal chart and what spiritual growth you are most needing right now.

We may see strongest manifestation of either side of that idealism-disillusionment spectrum on Wednesday, when Neptune and Jupiter have a bit of an energy clash. Jupiter in Cancer expands our sensitivity to others, but tends to see reality from the context of our human need for emotional soothing. Neptune in Pisces is dissolving old concepts of what it means to be “spiritual” — and, in particular, is refining our understanding of love.

PISCES AND CANCER can work well together, both being based in caring for others. But the aspect between Jupiter and Neptune on Wednesday tells us that for the moment, the two perspectives are not in sync.

Perhaps it is the redefinition of love that Neptune is bringing forward, that Jupiter may have a hard time adjusting to. Our definition of love has often been equated with self-sacrifice and rescuing, and we think we are being the most caring when we feel ourselves what the other person is feeling.

The problem with these ideas is that self-sacrifice and rescuing are predicated on the need for the other person to be different. If we feel someone needs rescuing or we need to sacrifice something for them to be happy, we are actually telling them that they are not OK as they are, and that we don’t trust them to be able to handle their situation.

AND, given what we know about energy and the law of attraction, if we take on a difficult emotion that another person is feeling, we do not help them to find their way out of that challenging place. It sounds uncaring to say “don’t empathize” when someone is hurting, and we know from personal experience that it feels good when someone joins us in our anger or our opinions. We feel validated and are comforted that we are not alone.

But I think about the highly evolved humans that have lived or are living on the planet, and my guess is that none of them (at least on their better days!) spent much time trading stories about bad bosses, bad partners, or bad traffic.

A NEW DEFINITION of unconditional love tells us that “loving in all conditions” means we don’t need others to to change for us to maintain our own well-being. It means that we do not try to rescue others from their situation, but that we expand our feeling of love and confidence about their ability to overcome their own challenges.

When we love unconditionally, we pay more attention to our loved one’s shining ability to make their lives work than we do to fixing the problem for them. And, we shift our support from commiserating to holding our own thoughts and energy at as high a vibration as we can — knowing that being in alignment ourselves is the greatest gift we can offer, and that diminishing our light does not help others expand theirs.

SATURN AND VENUS are on opposite sides of the zodiac on Thursday. Venus in Taurus would prefer to see only the beauty in our relationships, while Saturn in Scorpio makes sure we look honestly and openly at what may not be so pleasant to observe.

This tension is eased by Chiron, who forms flowing aspects with both Saturn and Venus during their stand-off. Chiron in Pisces provides the awareness that no matter what the conflict, we can trust in the unfolding of the issue, and that whatever comes to the surface now will ultimately provide an opportunity for healing.

THE FULL MOON, also on Thursday, is in Sagittarius, providing the insights and wisdom that will allow new directions and adventures to unfold in our lives. The Sabian symbol for the degree of the Full Moon echoes that theme:

“A group of immigrants as they fulfill the requirements of entrance into a new country: Consciously accepting the ways of a new stage of experience, in readiness for the opportunities it will present.”

Most of us feel that the experiences of this year have brought us to a “new country” in some respect. This Full Moon appears to be confirming that truth, and sheds light on this new stage of our lives so that we can more consciously participate in our next steps.

WE WILL REVISIT some of the themes from April’s Cardinal Grand Cross next weekend, when Mars is once again square (90 degrees away from) Pluto. You may recall that Mars was actually retrograde during the exact grand cross — a fact that may have altered or delayed some outcomes and new beginnings.

Now that Mars is moving forward and interacting with Pluto again, we are more supported in also going forward with the changes we have been anticipating. One caution, however: Remember that Mercury is now retrograde, and will be for the rest of June. This does not mean we can’t take steps forward, but it does require plenty of deliberate, conscious thought so that we do not miss important details that could affect the success of our endeavors.

And, for a final time, here’s the info about Thursday’s teleclass:

TELECLASS THIS THURSDAY, JUNE 12
Finding the Trail Home
Your guide to planetary influences
for July through December 2014

There are two ways to participate:

1. Attend live on Thursday, June 12, either online or by phone, at these times:

4 to 5:30pm PDT | 5 to 6:30pm MDT
6 to 7:30pm CDT | 7 to 8:30pm EDT

2. OR, if you can’t attend live, you will receive a link by email after the class airs that will allow you to hear the replay and watch the slideshow.

OUR TELECLASS is this Thursday! I’m calling it “Finding the Trail Home” because, now that we’ve made it through the tumultuous energies of the Cardinal Grand Cross, we have the opportunity to move forward in new ways — to come “Home” to ourselves in ways that we’ve not found possible before.

Topics include the continuing effects of the Pluto-Uranus square, the October eclipses, a Saturn-Mars alignment in August, and the Uranus-Jupiter trine in September.

I’m once again teaming up with Elsie Kerns, Wellness Educator, who does such a great job of handling all the technological and organizational aspects of the event.

As always, you can either attend live or just download the replay afterward at your convenience. For more information, or to register, here’s the link:

http://pamjune2014.eventbrite.com

I hope you can join us!

Blessings,

Pam

NorthPoint Astrology Blog: To read recent posts, please visithttp://northpointastrology.blogspot.com/. I look forward to your comments!