Joan Porte – Page 16

The Tragedy Of Donald Trump

Yes, I know that is a loaded heading. While I can write a missive on the tragedy to our country, however, I want to step back and focus on the man.

He could, if he opened up to his chart destiny, be a great president. No, really! With his North Node in the 10th house, the house of government and authority, in the sign of Gemini he could be someone who listens to all viewpoints and appreciates divergent ideas. With his Sun energy on one side of the Node and Uranus on the other, he could be a brilliant future thinking leader.

However, nothing he has done to date shows that he has any desire to move out of his South Node or karmic pattern of being someone who is emotionally attached to being the one of knows (Sagittarius) how to protect himself and his “family.” With the ruler of his South Node retrograded along with Pluto in his house of self-worth, he is too afraid to give up the facade of Sagittarius – (there is nothing you can tell me that I don’t already know) to learn. That would require an element of emotional security that he has yet to exhibit.

His Leo rising and Mars on the ascendant makes his belligerence and desire to fight all enemies all too clear.

That is not to say he can’t awaken to his soul destiny. For all of our sakes, I am hoping that he gets a seasonal visit from the three ghosts so instrumental in Ebenezer Scrooge’s rebirth. It is the season of miracles after all. Isn’t it?

Happy Thanksgiving

It has been a tumultuous few weeks in America. Today, I am turning from politics to Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, politics will follow us into the holiday. The Sun will be in the ninth house – that of international affairs – closely conjunction the loyalty goddess, Juno, and the communicator, Mercury. Can you say “ready, set, fight?” Lilith, the rebel woman energy, is next to the Sun – so woman are going to want others to hear them. I hope someone removes all sharp knives and sturdy turkey legs from the tables.

With Uranus, the rebel, and Ceres, the nurturer, both in retrograde and in the second house of values, expect to have circular debates about who we are and what we are becoming. The retrogrades will assure that those will be very “holy” debates as they will have no beginning and no end.

If you are heading into dinner with family members on the other side of divide try to find some common aspects. Admire the table, gush over the turkey – then run to living room and immerse yourself in football until it is time to go home. You won’t change any minds and who needs indigestion on Thanksgiving?

Enjoy – and thank you for your support!

Shamanic Healing in the Time of Great National Pain

Today I have asked Meg Beeler to give us some advice on healing in the terrible aftermath of the election. She is a shamanic guide, founder of Earth Caretakers and author of Living in the Heart of the Universe: Expanding Your Relationship with Earth and the Cosmos. – See more at: http://www.megbeeler.com/path-of-vision-or-road-of-despair/#sthash.sA7Z2OUc.dpuf

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It’s not easy to maintain hope in our current climate.

Yet shifting from the road of despair to the path of vision works. I know this: When I put aside anxiety and focus on the world I want to live in, my heart opens. When I vision the world we are dreaming for our descendants, I calm down. When I drum every morning for Standing Rock and clear waters, I connect with the whole.

It is up to us—whether we be lightworkers, visionaries, dreamers, idealists, or simply determined humans—to create the world we want to live in.

That doesn’t mean ignoring the shadow side (looks like I’ll be talking more about this in upcoming blogs!) Yet if we do not have clear dreams—in our lives, our businesses, or countries—we flail.

We are the creators, weaving a piece of the whole web. We are, as we hear so often, the ones we are waiting for. So let’s step up to the plate!

“Our beliefs have the power to change the flow of events in the universe—literally to interrupt and redirect time, matter, and space, and the events that occur within them“ as Gregg Braden says.

Visioning from Your Essence

My imagination was seriously suppressed when I was a child. It became inaccessible to me as I grew up. So it was a challenge to learn to vision and dream.

When I learned to integrate the focus I’d learned in meditation, my nature connections, and shamanic worldview into visioning, doors opened.

I want to share this visioning practice with you. The spirit world and the ancestors are really calling to us to help shift the trajectories on the earth—to redirect events and feed the shifts of consciousness that are occurring.

Visioning from your essence is simple and profound. I’ve used it daily for maybe 15 years. I’ve done it alone and in groups, large and small. We incorporate it regularly into our monthly shamanic journey group.

You begin by finding some images for your essence. You might experience it as a tiny light at the center of your heart, a great glowing ball of light, or something else entirely.

By feeling your essence with all your senses, and getting friendly with how it looks, feels, sounds and smells, you ground your vision with images you can return to over and over.

Rattling while you do this, or listening to some repetitive percussion, helps you stay focused and concentrated.

The second step is to see you essence get bigger, so it fills your whole body and shines out from you. You can think of this as a way to experience your sacred power.

When you’ve got a strong, consistent sense of your essence, the third step is to visualize the world you want to create (keep rattling) from your essence.

For example, to vision a world with clean clear water, you let your essence show you what that looks and feels like. It’s a whole body sensation.

You stay with it. When your mind wanders or says “not possible,” you come back into your essence to revision and experience the clean, clear water. You see yourself taking it in, feeling it in your body.

The more you let your experience be somatic, the stronger it becomes.

You are creating new neural pathways.

You are retraining your doubting mind.

You are shifting your perception—from despair to divine perfection,

You are creating a vision of substance to sustain you when times are challenging.

If you’d like to try this with voice guidance, listen. About halfway through this interview with Future Primitive, I lead a visioning-from-essence journey to the Ogallala Aquifer under Standing Rock, and then up to the gathering of Water Protectors.

Visioning as a Path for Change-Making

I grew up in a progressive household and had my eyes opened by major political change movements. Went to many protests. Got discouraged. Trained in nonviolent protest. Explored Despair and Empowerment with Joanna Macy. Dropped out, returned, dropped out—my “glass half empty” perception focused me on what didn’t change, rather than what did.

Being an empath, it wasn’t easy to be in big angry crowds. I noticed that most “protestors”—people who care enough to stand up for what they believe—fueled themselves with rage and frustration. That’s true on both sides of the divide, as we’ve seen in this US election.

I didn’t want to fuel my work with anger. I care passionately, but I’m non-violent. I kept looking for alternatives.

The meditation pillow approach was personally calming but too far removed from activism for me. As I learned more about how our perception creates our “reality”—from indigenous wisdom keepers, lightworkers, spirit helpers, and quantum physicists— visioning became part of my shamanic and spiritual practice. It became central to my toolkit for change making because it helps me see, know, and create images of substance to sustain my passion and my activism.

It’s a lot more powerful to learn the various aspects of visioning in groups: the energy fields we create together augment and expand our individual visions. We do this together through ceremony, circles, and a journey group.

When I founded Earth Caretakers almost 20 years ago, it was to encourage and build ways for us to dream a new dream.We’re still at it. I’m always available to talk with you about your own visioning process and help you sort out the next steps on your path.

I Was As Blind As the Pundits

During the deliberations of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, a woman asked Benjamin Franklin,

“Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?”

With no hesitation , Franklin responded, “A republic, if you can keep it.”

Even though I know that Pluto brings up churning turmoil buried deep inside and I have been preaching for five years that it will bring deep change to government. Even though in this blog I wrote about how Pluto brought us President Obama, but we can’t always expect it to work in our favor. Even though, I had my financial advisor move as much money as possible out of the stock market because I had a sneaky suspicion that something horrible would happen. Even though I blogged about how neither Hillary nor Trump were following their North Nodes and neither had great charts for Presidents so there was no clear cut astrological “winner,” I was like so many others and thought it could never happen here. Despite her chart – she had to win because he was so vile. We are America, after all.

We are America. WE would never support an ignorant, racist, homophobic fool who knows nothing about our Constitution. We are America. IT CAN’T HAPPEN HERE. We are America. She will win by 315 votes I said to myself because “love trumps hate” – we are America. Pluto was nice to us once, maybe the change will be getting a female president and the rage is that of all the woman who never got a chance. Pluto won’t be that bad to America – it can’t – those things don’t happen here.

I saw all of the political pundits talk about her firewall and said to myself – sure, they are right because this is America. We are America dammit – not a third world dictatorship – not a banana republic. It can’t happen here! We would never vote in a man so disgusting – a man who mocks the disabled, who assaults women and who knows nothing about governing. We are America – the land of George Washington and apple pie and expanding freedoms. It can’t happen here.

I just would not allow myself to see what was in front of me – written in the stars. That Pluto brings change born of submerged rage and doesn’t care where it lands even if it cuts into the heart of the country where “it” can never happen.

Then it happened.

So what now? Well, dear Pluto will remain in Capricorn until 2023 and American really isn’t in a full Pluto return until 2021. (When American was “born” in 1776 Pluto was last in Capricorn, in the second house, ironically the house of values. It won’t go back to the exact location it was then until 2021.) Will we become a country of hate, a dictatorship, a land where we persecute immigrants, gays and non-Christians? Will we forevermore think nothing of having someone as our leader who is a bully? In other words, will we so destroy our value system that future generations mark this day as the beginning of the end of the American experiment?

Is this nation destined to have been born during one revolutionary time of Pluto in Capricorn only to die during the next?

Or will we have a new “revolution.” Forced to see the face of hate every day sitting in our most revered house will we fight back? What will we do when they start to destroy the hard fought rights of gays and lesbians? What will we do when they destroy woman’s reproductive rights or toss 20 million people off health care? Will we play video games and drink our lattes or will we take the streets if necessary?

You won’t find these answers in Pluto. It is just an element of change. Whether this is just a sad blip in our history and we once again right ourselves depends on us. What kind of America exists when Pluto leaves Capricorn in 2023 depends on how willing we are to remember who we were when it was last in that sign.

Pluto uncovered and elevated the rot. It is up to us to decide if we shall let it remain exalted or destroy it and continue on the path of progress.

The First American Presidential Election –

The first election held in America was on January 7. 1789. Only white male property owners voted and there were only 15 electoral votes at stake. There were quite a few candidates hoping to be the first President, John Adams, John Jay, Robert Hanson Harrison, John Rutledge, Samuel Huntington, John Milton, James Armstrong, Benjamin Lincoln, Edward Telfair and, of course, George Washington.

Moving through the 10^th house, which controls government, was Pluto, the change agent and the Sun. Sun energy is always energizing and displays our inner spark so I am sure there was a tremendous felling of excitement that this new experiment was voting for a leader!

However, the Jupiter and Uranus retrogrades in the fourth house, that of home and roots and who we are at our core, shows that there was a good deal of both nervous energy and trepidation. Perhaps there was fear around our chances of success. We know that there was a great deal of dissention regarding the type of government we should have. The stark lines political “factions” so dreaded by President Washington were already there and the battle between Federalist and Anti-Federalist was just years away from explosion.

P.S. We didn’t start voting in November until 1845. Before that states called elections within a 34 day window before the first Wednesday in December. However, this caused problems because the earlier voting states often influenced the outcome of the elections of those with later polling dates. When the law passed in 1845 making one day the official Election Day, they needed one that did not interfere with farming since we were mostly an agrarian society. Spring, summer and early fall were busy times in the fields. Tuesday was a good day because it often took a full day for people to get to polling sites. They could not travel on Sunday because of church and most towns designated Wednesday as market day so Tuesday worked well.

Election Day

On Election Day 2016, Jupiter will be in conjunction with America’s Saturn which is in the house of government and society, the 10^th. Saturn loves the 10^th house, it loves tradition and organization. This is one reason our country is still plodding along slowly but surely for the past two hundred plus years. We uphold traditions, the hard to amend Constitution is our supreme law. Jupiter comes in and wants to add a sense of openness, newness to things. Jupiter wants to throw open the doors allow growth. The textbook definition of Jupiter conjunct Saturn is the adding of new methodology to a staid situation. Does that point to the election of a female as President or a total radical who wants to tear it all down?

With unpredictable Uranus in militant Aries entering our fifth house of self-expression and creativity and sitting on Chiron, the wounded warrior, I do expect fireworks on Election Day and beyond. Our pain needs exposure and release. I just hope it is as painless and rewarding as possible. I hope it moves us forward.

To my clients who are in Pluto in Capricorn overload, please note that we are not even in a full Pluto “return” yet. A return is when a planet returns to where it was in the original chart. When American was “born” on July 4, 1776, Pluto was at 27 degrees Capricorn. Pluto right now is only 15 degrees Capricorn. We have a long way to go for a complete return.

Since Pluto is in our house of values and self-worth. I hope that this country takes the time before the full return, which will start around 2022, to assess our value system. Who are we – who do we want to be going forward? I believe this election is starting to force us to come to terms with the uglier sides of our society but it is just the beginning.

What is in Store for Us in the Third Debate?

The slower moving planets haven’t moved much since the first debate, of course, but we do have some shifts which both candidates should note. Secretary Clinton has the chance to become more “friendly.” With the Sun conjunct Mercury along with Jupiter in her eleventh house, this is her time build a community. The eleventh house helps us find our tribe – come together with like-minded people and work toward some common goal. Progressed Saturn there will help her layout her plans, show that she can make an America that is opposite what Trump wants.

Her mantra should be – 90 minutes – be nice, be positive and be warm.

With Venus and Jupiter in her first she should be able to hold off on the urge to punch her opponent. However, it won’t be easy. He is going to have Mars right on his Pluto – (ironically a text book sign of male aggression only slightly outdone by a Mars/Saturn placement) right in his fifth house. The fifth is where we shine – where we take center stage. I have been hoping for him to go full mouth frothing at a debate and this is my best chance. Seriously, if he presents himself as a statesman I will be putting more credence into those stories of him being on drugs – they will have sedated him!

Ah, but is Hillary in Her North Node?

I wrote a blog entry about Donald Trump being stuck in his South Node and not moving into his current soul’s desire. Now it is time to look at the Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton.

There is some controversy about the time of her birth. (There is no shock there when we are talking about the Clintons.) Some sources say she was born at 802 AM and some people say it was a PM birth. Reports are that Secretary Clinton herself has said that she was born in the evening and some say that she said it was the AM chart. Most people rely on the 8:02 AM chart since some friends corroborate it.

Born at 8:02 AM, Hillary would have a chart making her prone to secret enemies and to being very secretive. These are other reasons most astrologers use the morning chart.

Regardless of the time, we know that her South Node, where she is coming from karmically, is in Scorpio. This indicates a person who lived lives draw to passion, drama – someone who loved to be in the thick of things even if that caused great consternation. Life and death situations mesmerize Scorpios and they are always on the hunt for the next battle.

In this lifetime, she is supposed to learn the lessons of Taurus, the Bull who would prefer to smell the roses and eat good food. Taurus runs from drama and wants to experience all of the wonders of being in the physical realm. Scorpio wants intrigue – Taurus seeks a quiet place to watch the sunset.

The 802 AM places her South Node in the first house, that of personality. She loved nothing more than being in the thick of the action. It was who she was and how she lived her life.

Her North Node is in the opposing house, the seventh that of blissful relationships. Ironically, the seventh house is that which rules the domain of marriage and contractual relationships.

One would think, looking at this chart that she should not have run for President and instead settled with Bill and her grandchildren in New York. However, she may think that being back in the White House with them will bring her that peace she has long sought. I have my concerns, not about her running the country, but about realizing her Node. However, no one can judge a person’s path. I can only hope it leads to North Node contentment in some fashion.

Tim Kaine

I don’t have Mike Pence’s birth time so I can’t do an accurate chart for him. I do have one for Tim Kaine, however. Before the debate tonight let’s look at the chart of the man who wants to be our next Vice President.

Like Secretary Clinton, Senator Kaine has his Sun in the twelfth house. This is normally not a “normal” placement for a politician because it builds in a natural reserve and even secretiveness. Both Democratic candidates prefer the work instead of the “smoozing” aspect of the work. Senator Kaine benefits from Mercury conjuncting his Sun which gives him more charisma, more appeal than Secretary Clinton. In his case, it comes across as a kind of folksy charm.

With his Moon in communicative Gemini in the third house, a house that Gemini likes, no one should underestimate his ability to get his point across. He is battling two retrogrades in his fifth house – that of creativity and expression – so while he isn’t a speaker on par with a President Obama or President Bill Clinton, when he is one-on-one he gets his point across.

Neptune and Jupiter surrounding his South Node in the mystical eighth house gives him his religious and missionary zeal. However, when I do a progressed chart – moving planets to their current position in his chart, he has a bit too many planets hitting his eighth house in the next few years. At its core, this is the house of death, dying and rebirth – so I hope he experiences more of the rebirth and personal transformation aspect of this house.

He is not flashy, he is good at hiding his brains behind a plain exterior but no one should underestimate Senator Kaine’s brains or ability to get his point across in the end.

Donald Trump – Deeply Embedded in His South Node

As a karmic astrologer the Nodal axis of a person’s chart is fascinating – that is the pattern of the North and South Nodes. The South Node tells me about their karmic past – what traits do they bring with them in this lifetime that are memories of past behaviors. While there is nothing wrong with our past incarnations, of course, our goal in this life should be to grow beyond them, learn new lessons and move forward. Why reincarnate if you are going to do the same things repeatedly?

Donald Trump’s South Node, Sagittarius in the fourth house, indicates that was someone fiercely involved with his family and community who held himself out as the keeper of knowledge and arbiter or what was “right.” Sagittarians love to know what is true – they love to be right. With his Moon so close to the Node and Jupiter, its ruler, in his house of self-worth, we can see how easy it is to goad him. He is emotionally incapable of not saying he knows all there is to know and he is always right. This has been a pattern for many lifetimes. This is why he says I am going to do this – and going to do that. In his mind, he knows all that is right for his community. He believes in his soul that only he can make “America great again.”

With his North Node in the tenth house, in Gemini he should be moving away from this idea that he has all of the answers and he is the lord of knowledge. Gemini is the seeker of knowledge – the sign addicted to learning all things new. Gemini demands that we open up to new ways of thinking. While the fourth house is my roots, my family – the tenth house wants us to involve ourselves in the larger world. Gemini in ten demands that we live in a world that is an open tent where new ideas are encouraged.

While the tenth house is also the house of society and government, Trump seems to be trying to impose his Sagittarian belief that he knows all into the larger picture instead of opening up to learning. He is making a slight foray into the tenth house but refuses to leave behind his old, Sagittarian patterns.

Does this spell success or defeat in November? The universe does reward baby step we take into our North Node, that is true. This may be dreaming on my part but I just can’t see his myopic, nationalist, hateful speech being that big a step forward for that big a reward.
P.S. I am so glad the Hillary “listened” to my chart advice last week to keep her cool no matter what and that Trump went full into his Jupiter verbosity!