NorthPoint Astrology Journal | January 5 to 11, 2015 | Pam Younghans

Posted Sunday, January 4, 2015 NorthPoint Astrology Journal Your Guide to Planetary Energies for January 5 to 11, 2015 By Pam Younghans Photo: Comet Lovejoy (C/2014 Q2) is currently visible in the night sky (credit: Gerald Rhemann, posted on SpaceWeather.com) IT’S TELECLASS WEEK! There’s still time to register for Thursday’s class on the planetary energies for the first six months of 2015. And remember that you do not have to attend “live,” since everyone who registers will receive an email after the class with links to an audio replay and to the pdf of the slideshow I’ve created. If you’re ready to register for the class, entitled“At the Door of a New Age” ($25 for the 90-minute class), here’s the direct link: http://pam2015.eventbrite.com I’m including the full class description again at the end of today‘s journal if you’d like more information before you decide about attending. I hope you can join us! AFTER the powerful planetary influences we’re experiencing this weekend — the Pluto-Sun alignment yesterday and the Full Moon today — it’s nice to see that the week ahead is not quite as rocky energetically. We start off on Monday with a Saturn-Mercury aspect that should help us wrap our brains around recent events, and make sense of any insights we’ve gained along the way. It looks like some of those insights will require an adjustment in our current trajectory, given that Saturn goes on to form a slightly challenging semisquare aspect with the Sun on Tuesday. AS WE NEAR the end of the week, things get a little bumpier. Mars is at the midpoint between Pluto and Uranus, forming a semisquare aspect with both planets on Friday and Saturday. The Uranus-Mars aspect stirs up irritations and impatience, whereas the Pluto-Mars aspect ignites the fight-or-flight response. Astrologer Noel Tyl writes that Mars at the midpoint of Pluto-Uranus manifests as “enormous energy; fanaticism; coercion.” Knowing that some primal instincts are likely to be awakened, we may want to plan ahead with this one. Where in your life could you benefit from utilizing “enormous energy”? How can you direct this energy in positive ways? Hopefully, if we keep our heads on straight, we won’t end up manifesting the “fanaticism or coercion” end of the spectrum. ONCE the dust settles, Sunday looks like a day to get back on track. The Sun and Vesta align in Capricorn overnight Saturday, providing the energy of commitment, discipline, dedication and goal-orientation for us to drawn on. The casualty of this focused attention, however, appears to be Jupiter in Leo, which is quincunx the Sun/Vesta alignment. We may need to practice delayed gratification with this aspect, and be more spontaneous and playful on another day. ANOTHER NOTE about today‘s Full Moon (Sunday, January 4, 8:53pm PST) — this lunation is also important because it occurs at the three-month point after our October 8Lunar Eclipse. The Sun travels 90 degrees in three months (a quarter of the way around the zodiac), and at that time, forms a square aspect to the eclipse degree. The lunation at the three-month point usually raises issues that connect in some way to the themes that arose at the time of the eclipse. As we navigate the powerful energies this first weekend of 2015, we may gain some insights if we can see current events as part of a cycle or a phase of experience that began in early October. Hopefully, that information will help us process what’s occurring now from a place of greater perspective and overview. AS PROMISED, here is the teleclass description one more time for those who want more information. I look forward to connecting with you all as we look ahead to the next six months! http://pam2015.eventbrite.com At the Door of a New Age Your astrology guide for January to June 2015 A 90-minute teleclass with Astrologer Pam Younghans and Wellness Educator Elsie Kerns Thursday, January 8, 2015 Live broadcast: 4pm PST | 5pm MST | 6pm CST | 7pm EST Also available by download after class airs | Fee: $25 THE FIRST 6 MONTHS OF 2015 hold enormous potential for spiritual growth and creative change, as the planets challenge each of us to make a quantum leap in some area of our lives. We’ve been working with the transformational energies of the ongoing Pluto-Uranus square for 3 years now. By the end of 2014, we will have experienced the exact aspect 6 times. But in each of those exact aspects, either Pluto or Uranus has been retrograde, leaving us to balance the need to resolve issues from the past with a strong desire to leap into the future. March 16, 2015 is the date of the 7th and final exact square between Pluto and Uranus – and on that date, both planets will be in forward motion. In other words, it’s all systems go, full speed ahead! In this 90-minute teleclass, I’ll explain more about what this final Pluto-Uranus square means, and how it relates to the title of the class, “At the Door of a New Age.” I’ll also talk about other exciting and potentially life-changing events in the first 6 months of 2015: The highly-energized line-up of planets in mid-March, which sees Mars aligning with Uranus and both planets trine Jupiter, right before the final Pluto-Uranus square – and just days before an eclipse and the equinox The Total Solar Eclipse on March 20 in the very last degree of the zodiac (29 degrees of Pisces), indicating a time of completion and the need to release old definitions of spirituality The Total Lunar Eclipse on April 4 that activates more events related to the Pluto-Uranus-Mars-Jupiter line-up in March The first months of Saturn’s transit through Sagittarius, and its return to Scorpio on June 14 I’ll also cover the significance of the New and Full Moons for each month, as well as Mercury’s retrograde phases, and other highlights of the first half of 2015. As before, the slideshow will include monthly calendars showing the most important planetary aspects. I hope you can join us, either “live” as the class airs, or by download afterward! To register: http://pam2015.eventbrite.com Blessings, Pam NorthPoint Astrology Blog: To read occasional posts and add your comments, please visithttp://northpointastrology.blogspot.com/. See you there! To Subscribe to the NorthPoint Journal: If you have been forwarded this issue of the NorthPoint Astrology Journal and would like to receive it directly every week, please click hereto access the “Journal” page of Pam’s website. Then, scroll down to the bottom of the webpage, fill out the subscription form, and click on Submit.

Highlighted Aspects for This Week . =”#3300cc”> MON: Saturn sextile Mercury; TUE:Saturn semisquare Sun; FRI : Uranus semisquare Mars; SAT: Pluto semisquare Mars, Neptune square Pallas Athene, Neptune semisquare Sun, Sun conjunct Vesta; SUN:Jupiter quincunx Sun About the Journal Astrologer Pam Younghans writes this NorthPoint Astrology Journal based on planetary influences and guidance received. Her hope is to offer perspectives and insights that will assist you in utilizing current energies to enhance your life experience and accelerate your spiritual and personal growth. Astrology Readings To schedule your personal astrology reading with Pam, please e-mail pam. Or, see the “Readings” page atwww.northpointastrology.com to learn more about personal astrology readings. Please feel free to share this NorthPoint Journal with people you think may enjoy it. When doing so, please forward it in its entirety, including all contact and copyright information. Copyright NorthPoint Astrology 2015. All Rights Reserved.

Truthout Daily Digest Saturday, 3 January 2015

Flipping the Script: Pedagogy, Theater and Radical Organizing in Schools of Poverty

John Duda, Truthout: If change comes to US schools, it will come, as the end of slavery did, as the result of a thousand and one acts of resistance and rebellion, says Jay Gillen in his new book, Educating for Insurgency: The Roles of Young People in Schools of Poverty.

Read the Review

High-Level Fed Committee Overruled Carmen Segarra’s Finding on Goldman

Jake Bernstein, ProPublica: The New York Fed president, Bill Dudley, says senior Fed officials did not accept a conclusion that had been endorsed by frontline Fed examiners stationed at some of the nation’s largest banks.

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Doubling Down on Dictatorship in the Middle East

Amanda Ufheil-Somers, OtherWords: Four years ago, it looked like the United States would have to make good on its declared support for democracy, as millions of Tunisians, Egyptians, Bahrainis, Yemenis and others rose up to reject their repressive leaders. Yet even the collapse of multiple governments failed to upend the decades-long US policy of backing friendly dictators.

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Terrorism “Insurance” Expires

Buddy Bell, Voices for Creative Nonviolence: Now that the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act has expired, the horrors inflicted by the United States on human beings abroad have more potential to cut into the bottom lines of insurance brokers and developers.

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Climate Change Threatens Quechua and Their Crops in Peru’s Andes

Fabiola Ortiz, Inter Press Service: Indigenous peoples living in a protected area in Peru are preserving the largest variety of potatoes in the world, along with their spiritual rites and traditional farming techniques. Still, alterations in rainfall patterns and temperatures have the Quechua Indians worried about the future of their potato crops.

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Comcast Wants Customers to Pay More for Using the Internet Too Much

Crystal Shepeard, Care2: The net neutrality debate has long centered on the ability of ISPs to limit content providers’ access to internet users. While the debate continues, ISPs are taking advantage of the delay to find alternative ways to control the gateway and make a profit.

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Behind New Jersey’s Tobacco Bond Bailout, a Hedge Fund’s $100 Million Payday

Cezary Podkul, ProPublica: When New Jersey decided to bail out some of its tobacco bonds, the state gave up $400 million in future revenues to pocket $92 million immediately, an arrangement that also helped one savvy investor cash in on a big bet.

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A Flat-Footed Backflip for Wall Street

Jim Hightower, OtherWords: Congress, which had been so tied up in a partisan knot by right-wing extremists that it became unable to move, suddenly sprang loose at the end of the year. It put on a phenomenal show of acrobatic lawmaking to give its bankster buddies an overly generous holiday gift.

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Carrots for Cuba, Sticks for North Korea

John Feffer, Foreign Policy in Focus: As one cold war thaws, another refreezes. Cuba just normalized its diplomatic relations with the United States after months of secret negotiations and a surprise announcement by the Obama administration. North Korea, on the other hand, remains very much at odds amid a conflict over a controversial film.

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The Torture Debate Is Missing This: The Fact That We Did This Before

Paul Kramer, History News Network: Past and present seem to come together in official declarations that US military actions are dictated by the mandates of an “exceptional” kind of war against a uniquely treacherous and broadly defined “enemy.”

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BuzzFlash

The Buzzflash commentary for Truthout will return soon.

Search Teams Find “Large Objects” in Hunt for Missing AirAsia Jet

Read the Article at Al Jazeera America

NYPD Chief Asks Officers Not to Turn Funeral Into Protest Against de Blasio

Read the Article at The Guardian

Fracking Industry Still “Failing” on Transparency

Read the Article at MintPress News

As Refugee Tide Swells, Lebanon Plans a Visa Requirement for Syrians

Read the Article at The New York Times

How Low-Income New Yorkers Are Benefiting From the NYPD’s Work Stoppage

Read the Article at ThinkProgress

How Fox News Covered Pope Francis’ Action on Climate Change

Read the Article at Media Matters

Republicans in State Governments Plan Juggernaut of Conservative Legislation

Read the Article at The Washington Post