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And so, as Kinsmen, met a Night —
We talked between the Rooms -
Until the Moss had reached our lips -
And covered up - Our names -
Dear Friend and Reader:
I wasn’t planning an article, but I have one for you.
Regarding the events of the past week, people can make excuses about why Harvard allegedly deserves to be disemboweled and defunded by the federal government, but I would ask why the Emily Dickinson Museum qualifies for cancellation.
They have been told that their museum “no longer serves the interest of the United States.”
What interest is that, exactly?
Did Emily come out in favor of the Palestinians?
Will we be witnessing a burn party of her collected works?
Kilmar Ábrego García, a legal U.S. resident with no criminal record, has been deported to a gulag and torture center in El Salvador (apparently still an American client state). We were all told that the point of deportation was to get rid of bad people who are in the United States illegally — and are criminals.
The Supreme Court has ruled unanimously that the administration must try to get him back; and it’s being ignored. So we have more evidence that the branch of government that is supposed to enforce the law, ignores the law. And who exactly is going to stop them?
This is the U.S. Pluto Return
What exactly are we witnessing? In tonight’s Starcast, I connect these developments to the U.S. Pluto return. That’s not over, though it’s dropped off of the astrological trendy scene before there could be a real discussion about it. And this is what it is: a second American Revolution, this time, against you.
It’s a revolution not against a tyrant king, but waged by a tyrant against the people he has sworn to protect and serve.
Now, most astrologers thought the Pluto return happened in 2022. By one technical measure it did; but the United States Pluto has precessed (not progressed) out to 3 degrees of Aquarius, where transiting Pluto is right now. So we are right in the thick of it and have been for a while. (Progressed U.S. Pluto is right on the Cap/Aqua line, which has been extremely active the past 18 months.)
Pluto has a 248-year cycle, and any event (such as a planetary return) will have an effective span of at least 10% of the cycle (much like the Saturn return of a person can go on for three years and Saturn’s cycle is 29 years). By my estimation, the first sign of the U.S. Pluto return was the Sept. 11 incident, wherein the government blew up its own buildings (which is now safe to discuss on YouTube).
And if you’re paying attention, you can see we are now not in the “post 9/11 world” but rather the world of one 9/11 after the next (including Operation Covid and Operation Clot Shot).
You might say that the 9/11 incident opened a door that has never closed and shows no sign s of closing; we keep waking up to a new form of the same nightmare with no time, space or meager thought of healing from the prior one.
Then people obsess over trauma — missing the most blatant and forceful source. It’s time we wake up and take care of ourselves and one another.
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Ask Not What You Can Do About This
The question is not what you can do about any of this. The question is, are you taking note? Do you see what is happening, and do you care?
And are you interested in what is driving all of this insanity the past 25 years? What we are witnessing is the Digital Revolution. That’s what the past 25 years all have in common — starting with the Y2K threat of “computers ending everything” on New Year’s Eve 1999 to 2000. What were you doing that night?
We know we entered the digital age because that’s when the corporate-government state admitted that we might have a problem. Then 11 months later, the symbol of the stolen elction of 2000 was nothing less than a computer card (and one has not been seen sense, but nothing says computer like an IBM punch card).
The final of three threshold events into the Digital Age was 9/11. I say this because the demolition of physical space (owned by the government itself) is all the digital you need; but also because after watching and studying them for nearly 25 years, I am fairly certain that the video dramatic footage was prepared in advance, using your typical Hollywood-style special effects.
And now we know what a “deep fake” is and we know about “generative AI” and that means we live in a world where everything we see online is suspect of being fake.
And by extension, that means that you might be fake, because you’re spending your whole day absorbing and becoming an effect of this technology — in digital and especially in AI, the user is content. You’re also looking into this dark mirror potentially without any of your prior moorings or points of orientation — especially inner. Especially physical.
If I were you, I would feel overwhelmed, though digital technology provides anesthesia; that is the digital fog. We can get out of this. There are methods, but we don’t use them. The first thing to remember is there’s no going back — only through.
With love,
Your faithful astrologer,
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Uranus in Taurus Was the Least Taurus Thing Ever
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TAURUS Sun + Rising — personal astrology. Extended reading coming next week.
You may feel like you’re in possession of forbidden knowledge — about yourself. Everyone has within them a fenced-off area from childhood that they were taught not to enter. The barrier is like a row of thick, thorny hedges or a barbed wire fence, and when your skin is pierced it feels like guilt or shame — possibly both. These were installed as control devices, not to hide your own truth but rather the conduct of others and what they did to you. Most people do not make their way through; it does not occur to them to try too hard. It seems painful and even impossible. Few therapists are aware of what I am describing, but there are some. You are very near this barrier, and you might want to find your way to the other side and see what’s there. So imagine you have a psychic bolt cutter, machete or laser, and make your way to the other side.
Taurus Astrology Studio 2025-26 is now available for pre-order.
Do you need spiritual or emotional support? Are you feeling lonely, lonely, alienated or afraid? I offer are high-quality affordable, accessible and motivating readings for everyone at the Astrology Boutique. Tap the banner to visit…there is plenty there for free…lots of samples; you could explore the site for hours. Where do you begin? Try anything, such as a reading for your Sun or rising sign. We will work with you if you have not purchased the exactly right thing for you. Just get in touch…Planet Waves is staffed by people who read your emails and return your phone calls promptly. — efc
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The 2025 spring reading is done. These are 50-minute readings that calmly explore our current astrological wilderness. I wanted to have your reading ready well in advance so you have time to work with the ideas I’m seeing in the astrology. We’re getting a lot of action all at once; I read the charts thoughtfully, in plain talk, in slow motion — so you can really get the feeling of these events and put them to maximum benefit. Note, it’s alternately called For the Faithful, Reckoning and the Spring Reading…you can choose your favorite name and color.
Weekly Horoscope for April 17 by Eric Francis
Reckoning for Aries has been published, preview below. Note, more previews are on our YouTube channel.
ARIES Sun + Rising. Note, more previews are on our YouTube channel.
Mars has now re-entered your fellow fire sign Leo. This will charge up your engines and also set you up for a potential power struggle. The structure of this is where your self-expression meets some resistance from your friends and potentially the public. Do you have any idea what this may be about? Do you have some specific need to “go public” in any way? You would be better served by developing your ideas and projects outside of public view. Your ideas are nascent; they are not developed enough for an audience. And if you share them and find some form of disapproval, you will almost certainly be dissuaded from further experimentation. Therefore, let your experiment persist, undisturbed by anyone’s opinion but your own. You do not need any form of encouragement or public approval. Seek within yourself the courage and dedication that can only come from you. And you can proceed slowly; you do not need an end goal. What you need is to be present for your own growth and learning.
Reckoning for Taurus has been published, preview below. Note, more previews are on our YouTube channel.
TAURUS Sun + Rising
You may feel like you’re in possession of forbidden knowledge — about yourself. Everyone has within them a fenced-off area from childhood that they were taught not to enter. The barrier is like a row of thick, thorny hedges or a barbed wire fence, and when your skin is pierced it feels like guilt or shame — possibly both. These were installed as control devices, not to hide your own truth but rather the conduct of others and what they did to you. Most people do not make their way through; it does not occur to them to try too hard. It seems painful and even impossible. Few therapists are aware of what I am describing, but there are some. You are very near this barrier, and you might want to find your way to the other side and see what’s there. So imagine you have a psychic bolt cutter, machete or laser, and make your way to the other side.
Reckoning for Gemini has been published, preview below. Note, more previews are on our YouTube channel.
GEMINI Sun + Rising
There has been a shift in the astrology that describes a new vulnerability. Well, maybe not new — I’m talking about how your psyche responds to exposure to the digital situation. This opening has been there for all of us, though factors that may not have affected you in the past are likely to take on an enhanced quality. The thing is you may not notice it, or notice what it is about. You might just feel the effects and wonder where they are coming from. What might they be? Something like a sense of not being yourself, or wondering where you went (add some quotes around those expressions). You may feel like once-familiar people are not quite who they were. It’s not about you and it’s not about them. It’s about noticing that we are all underwater at the bottom of an ocean we did not see flood the land. So you may have to learn how to breathe in a whole new way.
Reckoning for Cancer has been published, preview below. Note, more previews are on our YouTube channel.
CANCER Sun + Rising
When we look back on this troubled phase of human history, one of the themes likely to emerge is the evasion of responsibility. Or perhaps the better word is accountability, though I think that both are true: the ability to respond, and the willingness to be held accountable. After all, who wants to be on the line for what they do, decide or say? We imagine this is about some responsibility to the outer world, when in fact it’s about your responsibility to yourself. And for many, that’s a nonexistent concept — but it’s not for you, and certainly not now. Yet you may already know and surely will discover that your personal choices have impact and influence much wider than on your personal existence. Your family is involved, the people who respect and look up to you are involved, and — in a way that is increasing in intensity — people you do not know are feeling the influence of the decisions you make and the ideas you hold to be true. Therefore, proceed with care. Karma never sleeps.
Reckoning for Leo has been published, preview below. Note, more previews are on our YouTube channel.
LEO Sun + Rising
The Sun’s entry into Taurus is calling you out of your personal journey and into the world. It’s possible that you will want to take on some new responsibility or leadership for a project — whether in the community, in your family, or at work. If you do, step fully and boldly into the challenge. But do not hog the work or the glory. This is an exercise in bringing people around you into the fold. Get them to commit to the underlying values they already hold, and to the outcome they already want. Never make anything about yourself; make it about the overall mission — and a shared sense of necessity for what you all know must happen. This does not need to be a big project. It can be as simple as spring cleaning, or as complex as a family reunion. For you this is a very important leadership exercise for this new phase of your personal journey.
Reckoning for Virgo has been published, preview below. Note, more previews are on our YouTube channel.
VIRGO Sun + Rising
Pay attention to your fear level, especially related to your health. You may have some bouts of paranoia over the next few days, and they are just that. You will be able to tell from the intensity and also the shifting nature of your fear. In other words, one minute this worst thing might happen, and the next minute another kind of worst thing might happen, and then a little later, yet another kind of worst thing might happen — that’s an indication that your mind has run off with you. Pay attention to your dreams for the most reliable information. It’s not that your dreams will ‘come true’ but rather will reveal, in symbolic forms, what you’re really concerned about. Notice carefully how you feel when you wake up; that’s the single most important detail of a dream event. Then imagine you are the ‘thing’ you dreamed about and tell the dream from that perspective. Something like, “I am a vase. I am on the windowsill…”
Reckoning for Libra has been published, preview below. Note, more previews are on our YouTube channel.
LIBRA Sun + Rising
You may be having bouts of social anxiety. If that is true, I suggest you take as your mantra, “It’s not about them, it’s about me.” The thing you’re likely to be worried about is the impact or effect of your own creative expression. The clue I would offer is: it’s neither art nor creative unless you are at least a little terrified in the process of creating it. Anything that is truly artful is transgressive. It’s not craft, it’s not technology, it’s not advertising. It’s you emerging into a new form, pushing into the unknown. You discover the universe as you discover yourself. It’s true that most people are content to stare into their phones and munch down Hot Pockets. Then they tap on their pizza profile and just the right thing arrives. You are on a different route right now, an inner journey into a deep unknown. Remember that you may not be able to share this personally with others. Or it may take a long time until you find suitable points of contact. But the process of art allows you to express the unspeakable without words.
Reckoning for Scorpio has been published, preview below. Note, more previews are on our YouTube channel.
SCORPIO Sun + Rising
Stand up as the master of your destiny. It might not be true. Everything might be predestined, or determined by fate. You may be trapped in a simulacrum, or the victim of your own karma. You might be moving helplessly around inside some form of matrix-like construction and nothing you say, do or think matters. But then none of that might be true. You may be on Earth to learn how to make decisions. You may be here to learn how to find your freedom in the illusion of having none. If you try that, you might get a result. The description coming from your solar chart — vivid, unequivocal and not meekly sketchy — is to learn how to direct your energy. This means in the most subtle ways and in the most overt. Do you know anyone who is into target shooting? Or can you get yourself to an archery range?
Reckoning for Sagittarius has been published, preview below. Note, more previews are on our YouTube channel.
SAGITTARIUS Sun + Rising
There is friction in your chart right now, and if you work with it rather than avoid it, the results will be tremendous. Of course you have the ability to avoid it. It’s like going to a therapy session and chit-chatting about what’s not quite relevant, and talking the hour away. After all, it’s your hour, and the same is true with the opportunity presenting itself to you right now. There is plenty else you can do; you have social opportunities and matters of relationship and the usual emotional dramas of the world to eat up your bandwidth — if you want. If you feel no special calling to rise to the occasion of this very moment, with all of its potential. You may feel daunted by the prospect of failure, which really means the potential to do what you absolutely must do — and can still avoid. It’s all optional, though you shall never pass this way again.
Reckoning for Capricorn has been published, preview below. Note, more previews are on our YouTube channel.
CAPRICORN Sun + Rising
Your creative power is about to surge, though this requires focusing on collaboration. Certain individuals you may perceive as competitors may be your closest allies and collaborators. If you can arrange it, delegate a specific role that focuses a talent they take pride in. This would be a good general policy for all of the encounters and transactions in your life. Work people’s strengths, take advantage of their talents, and keep them at a workable distance sufficient to get your own work done. Meanwhile, you have some creative priority you’ve been neglecting and I suggest you take this month of the Sun in your fellow Earth sign Taurus to get yourself back into your pleasure. Sexual exploration is also under excellent stars, particularly of the “working it out in bed” kind of experience. Sex is an important form of communication and all people communicate with all other people — to some degree, greater or lesser — on this wavelength. Tune in.
Reckoning for Aquarius has been published, preview below. Note, more previews are on our YouTube channel.
AQUARIUS Sun + Rising
At long last, Mars is about to arrive in your opposite sign Leo. This is part of the long retrograde process that began way back in December. So it represents a situation that seems to come and go, but does not resolve. And over the next month or so you get to work out whatever this is about. As of today, you might not quite know what I’m talking about, but by the weekend, you will. And once the scenario surfaces, I suggest you create a chronology back to the probable beginning, which will likely be some time in the (northern) autumn of 2024. That’s probably as far back as you need to go. The main question is, what is the outcome you want? This is the question most people are afraid to ask, though doing so has a surprising way of cutting through the static and getting right to the point. If you know what you want, then you can get it.
Reckoning for Pisces has been published, preview below. Note, more previews are on our YouTube channel.
PISCES Sun + Rising
The Sun enters Taurus this week, and that’s always good news for you. Inner doors are swinging open, offering you many different creative possibilities if you stay in sync with yourself. Yet you may not understand what you’re feeling these days; the emotional level is complicated, and your feelings go back a long way. So any response you’re having may involve other people, places and times that are manifesting for you now. Some of this involves your relationship to your mother. One reading of the Ceres-Nessus connection in Pisces is that you’re starting to understand the nature of the connection, and of the burdens that she placed on you. I would sum them up as having imparted to you a far more limited self-concept than makes any sense at all. Resolve to feel what you’re feeling rather than to resent or forgive. This is a problem that contains its own solution.
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