I'm Back....

Hello to all you Dear Astrologically Inclined Readers who might be wondering where on earth I disappeared to since my last post of 3/31.

It's been a very strange, at times surreal, past several weeks.

I never would have predicted that my progressed Moon at 26 degrees of Cancer square my natal Jupiter at 26 degrees of Libra in late April would manifest in my learning that along with over 3,000 seemingly random fellow Nu Yawkers, I was on a "hit list" posted to the encrypted messaging app Telegram by the United Cyber Caliphate, a little-known hacker group with ties to ISIS.

Officials are reportedly not too troubled about this list, as the group is apparently poorly organized and Small Potatoesville, yet the local FBI has been contacting every name on that list (which disappeared very quickly). The day before Mercury turned Retrograde (which was 4/28 in case you didn't know), I received a "there's nothing to worry about, but please call us back" voicemail from an agent. I thought it was some sort of prank or scam -- I also wondered if anyone I knew on the poetry-performance circuit had flipped out, since the message was left for "T.C." (my nom de plume and so-called stage name). However, the agent I spoke with turned out to be very real indeed. She was very nice, in fact, and had no advice for me other than to go about my business and let her know if I notice any suspicious activity, at least as pertains to me.

I guess I'm not that paranoid or fearful a person, because I have been pretty much going about my business as usual. Since I lived in Manhattan's East Village when Avenues A, B, C, and D meant Avenues Aware, Beware, Caution, and Danger, I am generally alert when I'm out in the field. Perhaps the progressed Moon also going over my natal Mars earlier this month also helped keep me brave, though the exact conjunction also manifested in yet another bout of crappy health (bad cold plus a fever).

It was not even till last week that I bothered to do a little sleuthing via Google and came up with a likely reason why I made the list: last November, shortly before the first Saturn-Neptune square, I posted a little astrological essay entitled "Ash vs ISIS." As I reread it, I was honestly impressed that I'd written it. If I truly had my knickers in a twist, I would have taken down the post, and I certainly would not be throwing another metaphoric log on the fire by sharing this information.

But as long as there is still freedom of speech in the United States of America, I refuse to shut up. That is exactly what terrorists of all stripes want: for relatively innocent people to be scared little sheeple. In certain respects, e.g., post-9/11 air travel in the U.S., the terrorists have won. Security Above All! (Even if many security measures are acknowledged to be mere Band-Aids on a festering, gangrenous wound.) I am sure that more hit lists comprised of names of random civilians will be posted and then yanked before the lists can be traced to specific sickos, all in the name of fear-mongering. Screw that!

Tough talk, huh, Dear Readers? Especially coming from a Water-element individual who is too damn sensitive for this hardwood world (though the sensitivity often comes across as sheer Cancerian crabbiness). Especially coming from an astrologer who knows that while progressed Lunar aspects pass quickly (albeit sometimes with long-lasting aftereffects), other aspects do not. I can't say that I am looking forward to Uranus squaring my Sun another two times within the next several months, nor Pluto opposing my Cancer stellium a little ways down the road. I do not practice astrology in order to predict anyone's death, including my own; not only would that be morbid, any halfway professional astrologer understands that even the most fearsome of aspects can manifest in ways other than death (or severe illness or injury). Apparently Yoko Ono's astrologer predicted that 1981 would be a very good year for John Lennon, who wound up being assassinated in December 1980.

To quote another rock legend and member of the so-called 27 Club, "No one here gets out alive." Since none of us can know for sure how much time we have, it is our responsibility to truly live. Easier said than done -- God only knows I haven't always been able to put that philosophy into practice. But if you can't even say it, you don't stand much of a chance of doing it, either.