Maya del Mar's Daykeeper Journal: Astrology, Consciousness and Transformation
Moon image

The Meaning of the Moon

Previous Moon Reports:
April-May 2002
March 2002
Feb 2002
Jan 2002

M A Y A ' S   M O O N   R E P O R T ,   J U N E   2 0 0 2

Gemini New Moon Eclipse report

by Maya del Mar

JUNE 2002—NEW MOON ECLIPSE OF JUNE 10 AND FIRST QUARTER IN VIRGO ON JUNE 17
(reread the entries for June 10 and June 17 in the Daily Success Guide).

On June 10 we had a potent Solar Eclipse in Gemini, one which set in motion many new Gemini cycles, some as long as 30 years. Gemini is a sign of communication, information, and relationship. It’s very busy making connections, and we have all been deluged with things to do, i.e., connections. Saturn, the Builder, is featured. Saturn also relates to government, business, and to all authority. One of the ways in which Saturn works is to create obstacles and restrictions.

The news was full of important events around this eclipse, more than I’ve ever encountered. I’ll mention only a few. Many of them constellate around tightening "security," creating obstacles and restrictions around the free flow of information.

The Jose Padilla case is an example which raises constitutional concerns. On June 10 Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft proclaimed Jose Padilla, an American citizen, a top terror suspect, without citing any evidence. He classified him as an "enemy combatant," and transferred him to military custody, thereby avoiding a court deadline which would have required him to be charged or released.

The Dept. of Justice says it will hold Padilla in custody indefinitely until the Bush Administration decides its "war on terrorism" is over. The government says it will not file charges against him.

In the meantime, Padilla is incommunicado, unable to get in touch with his family or his attorney.

Many hundreds of non-citizens (no one knows how many) have been taken into custody without due process, and denied rights to counsel and to all communication. Many people think, "Well, they’re not citizens anyway. I don’t have to worry."

But Jose Padilla is a citizen. Just like me, just like you. He also has lots of friends and family supporting him, just like me, just like you.

We see here the Bush Administration’s full-scale assault on the Bill of Rights in action. Any of us can be targets.

The FBI, however, has a history of violating constitutional rights. In the Sunday June 9 San Francisco Chronicle, a whole section was devoted to a Special Report on the FBI’s secret stranglehold on the politics of the University of California for over two decades.

The author, reporter Seth Rosenfeld, has spent 17 years fighting to get the suppressed FBI files which form the basis for his work. Among the things the records show, according to the Appeals Court, is that the FBI waged a concerted effort in the late 50’s and 60’s to have Dr. Clark Kerr fired from the presidency of the university because they didn’t like his politics. Dr. Kerr was very highly respected by nearly everyone. The FBI’s own investigations found him to be completely loyal. Nevertheless, the FBI was ultimately successful, thereby cutting short Dr. Kerr’s public career.

Dr. Kerr, now 91, was unaware of this effort until he talked to Mr. Rosenfeld. "I trusted the government," he said.

The FBI also worked with Ronald Reagan—using the "Red scare"—to manipulate his election, first, as governor of California, and then as President of the United States.

The record shows that secrecy, the lure of power, and bald lies have been the FBI’s main tactics, playing on fear of communism.

This article comes as a timely reminder that the FBI has a long history of violating civil rights.

On June 10 the Washington Post wrote that the Bush Administration is restricting information on Missile Defense. On June 15, the ceremonial groundbreaking of the project took place at Ft. Greeley, Alaska, along with a celebration of the end of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, unilaterally announced by Bush in December.

On June 10 the World Food Summit opened in Rome, without really addressing hunger. One attendee said it should be called the Monsanto Summit. At the same time, the Biotechnology Conference opened in Toronto. Sec. of Agriculture Ann Veneman says that biotechnology is the answer to world food hunger. The U.S., which produces 70% of genetically engineered food, says it won’t label GE (genetically engineered) food.

Greenpeace released a study of GE crops in Argentina. They were negative on all the stated aims of alleviating hunger, using fewer chemicals, having higher yields, and reducing poverty.

The loya jirga, a traditional meeting to elect government representatives in Afghanistan, took place in Kabul. Hamid Karzai, the one-time Unocal representative and CIA liaision, will be interim president. Women made a vocal showing, but I didn’t notice any women’s names in the list of government officials.

In Washington, families of Sept. 11 victims rallied to demand a deeper investigation behind the Sept. 11 attack. They had many pertinent, as yet-unanswered, questions.

In Oakland, California, a federal jury decided that the Oakland police and the FBI colluded to frame Earth First!-ers Judy Bari and Daryl Cherney for the 1990 bombing of their own car. The jury awarded $4.4 million damages to the two environmental activists.

Pres. Mubarak of Egypt, the Saudis, and Ariel Sharon meet with Bush. Following these meetings the Israelis began to build a 75-mile fence around the West Bank and to seize and occupy Palestinian land. The Israelis also announced that they have three new subs which probably carry nuclear warheads. Palestinian attacks increased as well.

In Dallas the Catholic Bishops voted to strip priest molesters of their ministries.

GW signed a new anti-bioterrorism bill, and at the same time gave a special Technology Award to Dow Chemical. The bill includes $4.3 billion to safeguard food, water, and public health. Security Chief Tom Ridge met secretly with Congress to talk about the program.

75 House members wrote a letter to the House GOP leadership protesting their refusal to investigate the role of Enron and other energy traders in the California energy crisis. The House probed Enron’s deceptive accounting methods, but the letter pointed out that Enron is an energy marketer and not an accounting firm.

The Environmental Protection Agency made a radical assault on the Clean Air Act by allowing old power plants to continue polluting. The next day GW traveled to Houston to fundraise. George Smith of the Sierra Club said,

"It’s incredibly ironic that one day after weakening the Clean Air Act, Bush travels to the center of the energy industry to collect more money. To let polluting energy companies off the hook one day, and then raise money two blocks from Enron headquarters the next, sends a disturbing message to the thousands of Houston children with asthma and other respiratory diseases."

But not all is gloom. The U.S. Senate voted to preserve the Inheritance Tax, despite the fury of the White House. The Supreme Court outlawed execution of the mentally retarded. In Lima, Peru, six days of protesting the privatization of the water system stopped the process. In California, a judge allowed a human rights violation case against Unocal to go to trial, a first. And the City of San Francisco held a constructive energy summit to address the problem of energy sustainability.

Re the earth: a Princeton epidemiologist finds that all diseases, affecting all species, are rising with global warming. And on the Pacific Coast, the fishing industry will be nearly shut down by a ban on catching depleted West Coast rockfish, which includes many, including some of the most tasty, West Coast fish.

There is much more. We have all been busy, and the U.S. government, with Mars in Gemini, is no slacker. Gemini is quicksilver, and can be elusive and hard to keep up with.



Moon Report

This Taurus Moon Report
covers almost the entire Taurus Moon Cycle, which began on May 12 and lasts until the Gemini Solar Eclipse New Moon on June 10.

From the Daily Success Guide:

"New Moon in Taurus is about claiming our territory, stabilizing it, maintaining it, and making it productive."

I said that security and information would be the major themes. With the Gemini dominance, pairs are central, as in Israel-Palestine and India-Pakistan.

Israel, whose birthday occurred just as Mercury turned retrograde on May 15, is a Taurus state. Both Sharon and Arafat have Taurus moons, so we could expect a decisive tug-of war for the homeland (moon).

At the New Moon, Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of Israel’s far-right Likkud party, said publicly that "There will never be a Palestine State." Sharon proceeded throughout the month to smash, and re-smash, Palestinian towns and villages. By the end of the month he was talking about killing Arafat, and he was smashing Arafat’s headquarters around him, and shooting at him.

At New Moon, in Kashmir Indian soldiers' families were massacred by Kashmiri terrorists, sponsored by Pakistan. The rightist Indian government cut off diplomatic relations with Pakistan, and the war buildup on both sides escalated. There have been various meetings trying to defuse the conflict, but so far there are a million troops on the border, and tanks and fighter jets are in action, with lots of shooting. Both sides threaten nuclear war.

Latin America has been seething. The main theme was expressed at the Summit in Madrid of Latin American leaders, the European Union, and Caribbean nations: increased attention to globalization’s consequences, including growing poverty and inequality.

In the meantime, the U.S. Senate gave Bush Fast Track for signing the Free Trade Association of the Americas, FTAA, which represents a huge move to increase globalization. With this agreement, every aspect of our lives—in all of the Americas—is put under corporate control. Our hard-won laws of worker, environmental, and minority protection will mean nothing. Secret "trade" tribunals will, and are now, substituting for our courts.

For the Bush Administration, the territory is about expanding government-corporate control through expanded military options and security networks, both international and domestic. Centralization is the key to effective domination of the many by the few.

Every day there are moves in this direction. There are challenges as well, but the Administration skillfully brings another drama on the scene, or trots out another reform, just as things are getting embarrassing. Two major exposures have been the Enron case and the September 11 information problem.

On New Moon, David Duncan testified on the stand to criminal behavior at Enron. Now at the end of the moon month, we hear that Ross Perot Systems supplied the computer system for California energy, and set it up so that there were "holes" which helped the energy companies "game" California—with Enron being the major company involved in this game.

As the month began, GW was on the hotseat due to exposure of memos warning of a terrorist attack before September 11, plus high-level calls from other governments (e.g., Germany, Russia, and Israel) in August and early September warning that there could soon be a terrorist attack by plane on the World Trade Center.

Then Congress began an investigation of the FBI. This was followed by an FBI admission of problems and a planned reorganization of the FBI, including a much larger budget, more agents, and a closer CIA liaision.

The last development, by the end of the month, was Bush’s announcement of the creation of a huge Homeland Security cabinet-level department, combining dozens of other Federal bureaus, and with a $37 billion budget. By month’s end, the "security" and surveillance net in the nation was tightened dramatically.

As the FBI’s problems multiplied, Bush gave a speech in which he added 60 more countries to the list of terrorist threats, and possible targets of U.S. attack.

In regard to "security," at New Moon Bush also announced that construction of the missile defense complex in Alaska would begin June 14. The requisite six months has passed since U.S. withdrawal from the ABM Treaty, which has been a brake on nuclear weapon proliferation since 1972.

During this Taurus moon month, Bush also conducted an around-the-world display of U.S. dominance. GW and Laura Bush made separate trips into Europe and Russia, and Treasury Sec. Paul O’Neill traveled through Africa with rock star Bono.

In Moscow, Bush and Pres. Putin staged a public relations event by signing a nuclear weapons decrease treaty which in effect decreases nothing. In fact, the general commentary is that it increases nuclear danger. There are no specific target reductions, nor is there funding to ensure that reductions actually happen. Either side can withdraw at any time, without having reduced anything.

In Rome, Russia was accepted as a partial member of NATO, and by Full Moon, NATO was opening an office in Moscow.

In Germany, Bush deflected attention from his own totalitarian tendencies by giving a speech to Parliament in which he raised the ghost of Hitler, and said there is now a "new totalitarian threat." In the meantime, there were huge demonstrations in the streets in Germany against U.S. warmongering.

In Paris, Bush visited a WW II cemetery, and made a parallel to "terrorists." Thousands of Parisians demonstrated in the streets for two days, carrying such banners as "Enough greed, enough war," and "Bush, Chirac, Do not bomb Iraq. Let’s stop the war."

At New Moon Jimmy Carter arrived in Cuba to explore the political and economic situation in Cuba, and to open a bridge to the United States. He found that U.S. government claims of biological terrorism labs were false. He also gave a speech on national Cuban television asking for greater democracy in Cuba, and publicizing a group in Cuba which is working for democracy, Varela.

GW countered by going to Florida and giving a speech repeating his hard-line approach to Cuba, thus assuring the anti-Castro voting bloc of support for his brother Jeb in the coming Florida election.

Democracy and freedom took a huge hit during this Taurus month, led by that great paragon of democracy and freedom, the U.S.A. The odds of nuclear war, on the other hand, took a big jump. We might ask, what kind of world best suits the ruling arms makers?

As for me, my territory is my family, friends, and neighbors, and those connections have all been strengthened this month.