Sifting Wheat From Chaff

Mercury, the planet of thinking and common sense, now moves into one of its homes, Virgo, the sign of practical thinking, where it will reside from August 27 at 12:31 p.m. PDT until September 13 at 12:27 p.m PDT, when Mercury will move on to balanced and just Libra.

This welcome and refreshing burst of analytical, critical thinking is not a moment too soon. For things have been presented to us through the eyes of the media for the last several weeks in ways that were merely the wishes of the kings.

Did we really have a serious terrorist threat at Heathrow Airport or was it another of those Chicken-Little Orange Alert scams that our political PR operatives dish out whenever it looks like the public is catching on to the tricks of the trade?

The facts are coming in, and it looks like another over-blown fear alert because there is a dearth of facts leading to a prosecutable case against the alleged perpetrators of the would-be crime. Furthermore, it appears that torture was involved and torture certainly would besmirch the credibility of any usable evidence.

Next in importance of issues that need to be sorted out in terms of factual analysis -- at least in the eyes of the astrological community -- is whether or not Pluto will be reclassified from a planet to a Pluton, or dwarf planet.

The jury is still out on this in the scientific community because it appears that some political skullduggery was used to get out what was essentially a corrupted vote on the issue. Only those scientists of a certain opinion were deliberately present for the vote, which was taken after all the others had already left to go home from the conference.

That political rigging tactic certainly sounds familiar, but it would be a safe bet to assume that the scientific community, under the rule of Uranus, is more prone to democracy than our worldwide political community, under the rule of Saturn, and therefore, the ethos of control.

I do have a blog entry all ready to go on the topic of Pluto's reclassification, should the decision stand, but I think it's wiser to wait for the facts of the matter's legality within the scientific community to come in before pronouncing judgement on the issue.

Things could change.

And then there is the absolutely ludicrous spectacle of W standing amid the rubble of the Gulf Coast and proclaiming the area to be better off than a year ago. We don't need a lie dectector here.

So much for the big picture as it stands today. The next few weeks will surely bring us more issues to sort out and deal with in a practical, efficient manner.

Hurricane Ernesto is about to wollop Florida and Mars in Vigo will be dead square to Pluto in Saggitarius, so it's likely to be One Hell of a disaster for the medical personnel, the Red Cross, and any military personnel who are called to assist in the field.

We will see if things are better off than a year ago.

Don't bet on it.

For your personal issues, now is the time to sort out the wheat from the chaff. Get out your mental sifter and decide what's real and what isn't, what's important to you, what's necessary, and what isn't. What do you really have to include in your thinking in order to take care of business?

Rationalism is an adventure in the clarification of thought.

From "Process and Reality," by
-- Alfred North Whitehead, 1861-1947