Whoever has no desire nor distaste for the fruits of one’s work and takes both success and failure in the same way will be liberated from good and bad results already in this life and is not reborn but instead goes beyond all evil.
– Bhagavad Gita
Spring/Autumn 2008
Happy New Year, Everyone! Astrology and Iran celebrates New Year on the day of the Vernal Equinox, which showed up today, 20 March 2008 at 5:48 UTC. If you are visiting from the Northern hemisphere let me wish you a Spring of new and intelligent beginnings, and to all you Southerners an Autumn of triumph over gossip and infidelity! As always the Cosmic Ledger warmly welcomes all newcomers and to all steady visitors long awaited updates are getting closer every day. If all goes well Astrolog for OS/2 will be updated next month.
A Note on Happiness
If you are not happy but want to be, try these three steps: 1) realize you are better off with God, 2) ask His forgiveness in full understanding of your past stupidity, and 3) let Him surprise you with all the happiness you need.
As for giving, remember that you cannot give what you do not have. If you want to give peace to the world you have to have peace within. You can only have peace within if you are with God and you can only be with God through asking forgiveness. To receive forgiveness you also need to give forgiveness.
Life in the material world is said to be like having a constant 40-degree fever. Until you remember God you are delirious beyond all hope of recovery, especially so if you do not realize how bad your condition really is.
According to Jesus we are all evil and only God is good. Thanks to God’s love he constantly teaches us how to restore our health. Some of us may be more difficult to teach than others, but we are all work in progress.
For people on the road to recovery God has provided astrology, through which we can learn where we stand, how far we have to go, and what to expect from both ourselves and the people around us.
As astrology helps keep madness at bay we get a grip on our situation and it gets easier to love – His first commandment. Astrology can also give practical advice on everything from selecting a suitable spouse to the best time for celibacy.
Finally, astrology makes it more obvious that we do not have free will. To praise or blame ourselves or others is to worship the created in place of the creator, so we better stop the praise-blame game and realize who is God.
When we receive punishment it is not for our
actions,
but for believing we are actually responsible for them – thinking we could have acted differently.
If you think you are doing good (self-righteousness) you have in this sense just as much to ask forgiveness for as someone who thinks he or she is doing evil.
All that does not take place in faith is sin
(Rom 14:23).
Let us all follow God’s long-standing advice:
Worry about nothing, love everyone, know and trust in Him.
Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother
(Mark 3:35).
Astrological Review and Forecast
There are many wills in the world and not all of them can have their way at the same time. Using astrology one can track who is on top at any given time. Simplistically speaking demons reign when the planets are in their signs of fall and saints reign when they are in their own signs.
The most important planet for tracking the will of the world is Saturn, or Kronos in Greek. Saturn left the sign of Leo and its state of fall on 3 September 2007. It continues to be somewhat poorly placed all through Virgo, but the worst of the current cycle should now be over. After a period of relative happiness and tolerance, Saturn entered Gemini on 21 April 2001, then reached Cancer on 4 June 2003, and finally Leo on 16 July 2005.
The period through Cancer and Leo covers the U.S. occupation of Iraq, a magnitude 6 earthquake killing over 5 000 in Indonesia, a tsunami killing more than 200 000 people around the Indian Ocean, a hurricane killing over 1 000 in the U.S., and all sorts of horrific injustices including abortion legalizations. Closer-to-home, less high-profile and more every-day nerve-wrecking activity should have left many without proper sleep.
In August of this year the world also experienced a magnitude 8 earthquake shake Peru, killing over 500 people and injuring more than 1 000, and the day Saturn conjuncted the Sun, reenforcing the roaring Leo characteristcs, the first and probably only category 5 hurricane of this season struck Mexico. The period as a whole saw no fewer than 7 category 5 atlantic hurricanes.
Finally, as the period came to an end this past Summer, Greece saw more than 3 000 wildfires giving many people a visible picture of the hell that is Leo at its worst. A personal example of Saturn in Leo is Adolf Hitler. Here the worst of Leo – seduction, laziness, arrogance and need to head the parade at any cost – was further emphasized by Jupiter joining Ketu in an even sign. The same traits also grow strong when the Sun joins Saturn in an odd sign, or with Uranus placed in Cancer, both cases notably showcased by current Russian President Vladimir Putin. Unlike Hitler, however, Putin is a young adult rather than a school boy. His Rahu in Aquarius (strength) is also the exact opposite of Hitler’s in Cancer (addiction).
Things should be improving as Saturn now transits Virgo. Despite being weak at first and then possibly resentful and plagued by indecision, the coming 2 years should see an overall improvement over the past 5. Already since December of last year, Jupiter in Sagittarius has been mitigating the worst of Saturn in Leo. Jupiter – the planet of fundamental truth, insight and joy – will continue to be extremely well-placed until December of this year.
Its placement is more poetic than athletic, however, and indicates a time of more tenderness than usual. This is therefore a better setting for meditation and rest, than it is for expansion and gambles. The placement also favors artistic expression and universal compassion for all God’s creatures – including animals.
Not long after Jupiter leaves Sagittarius in December of this year, the Moon’s nodes enter their best signs. The longest period of dignity in their cycle begins in January of 2008 and lasts all through Saturn in Virgo and beyond. People should become more aware of reality, and astrology could see a major breakthrough. Spirituality booms yet again as it did once before in the early 90s.
Jupiter will see another high 2009/2010, which this time around should be more outgoing and expansive with an emphasis on larger Truth. This transit favors intellectual ventures, higher science, perspective on life, travel and general prosperity. In summary, the overall forecast until 2010 is for the better, with the middle of November especially good for saints and a lot worse for demons.
Updates
Talking about astrology, the first installment in the Ledger’s astrology series is evolving. God willing, it will be finished later this year, and followed by many more. If you have been looking for hard-to-find, real, practical and working astrology, this website is now well worth bookmarking.
Astrolog Chart Collection 1.15
2007-09-24: The collection of famous and infamous charts, the Astrolog Chart Collection, has been updated. No more updates are expected before the next Astrolog for OS/2 release later this year.
Astrology: Sankhya Yoga
2007-08-31: The straight-talking Sankhya Yoga page in the astrology section has been updated to reflect even more changes to come.
Astrolog Chart Collection 1.14
2007-07-10: The collection of famous and infamous charts, the Astrolog Chart Collection, has been updated. No more updates are expected this month, but there might be one more before the season ends.
Live Earth Update
2007-07-09: The vegetarian reasons page has been updated in response to the Live Earth jippo with a link to a FAO report on the impact of livestock on greenhouse gas emissons. For just added lines on the important health benefits of walnuts please go to the main vegetarian diet page.
Astrology: Sankhya Yoga
2007-07-06: The straight-talking Sankhya Yoga page in the astrology section has been updated.
Software: Astrolog for OS/2 Alpha 6c
2007-06-26: The free astrology software for OS/2 now features the latest Sankhya Yoga algorithm. Alpha 6 of the software introduced Synchronized Houses to the world. For more information and to download go to the Astrolog for OS/2 page.
Site Sections
Site Redesign
The complete redesign of the Ledger is the result of months of effort and reading up on standards and trying to tame various browsers to behave nicely, or at least nicely enough to bring the content of this website within reach of every beloved visitor. A lot has been learned in the process and as much as possible will be shared in the months to come.
To reap all the benefits of standards the redesign complies with the strict document type definition of HTML 4.01 and completely relies on Cascading Style Sheets for layout and presentation. Behind the scenes PHP hacking makes future changes and additions simpler than before. The publishing end has been sped up thanks to enhanced REXX scripting.
For a couple of months more this website will have many rough edges including old pages not yet converted to the new design. Expect all pages to have been converted by the end of the year. Presentation should continue to improve steadily.
Accessibility and Browsers
Accessibility has been improved with skip links and associated access keys. The skip links are not only available to visually impaired visitors using screen readers, but also to anyone using the keyboard for navigation. In many regular browsers such as Opera and Mozilla you can now also use their Site Navigation Bars for previous/next page, etc. Read more about the accessibility of this website.
The website has been tested and seriously tweaked for Internet Explorer. Small CSS adjustments have been made for Opera. Contrary to expectations Firefox does not consistently have the best CSS support. In at least one instance Opera and even Internet Explorer outperformed Firefox. At this time it seems to me that no single browser can fully replace the others. However, the open source browsers are the only ones to fully support fixed sidebars.
For backwards compatibility the redesign has been repeatedly tested in Netscape 4.61 and with style sheets turned off in Mozilla and Opera. Netscape as well as text browsers will be able to view all content. The former will miss out on special HTML 4.01 features, some accessibility, and most CSS including the three column layout. Of the tested browsers Mozilla/Firefox and Opera are alone in supporting the compact contents listings.
Although somewhat mellowed after testing I would still recommend FireFox for former Internet Explorer users, and Mozilla for Web developers and former Netscape users. If nothing else the Mozilla products are available on more platforms and support all the accessibility features employed by this website. For the most complete CSS 2.1 support I recommend Opera and if you have the option the Mac OS X browser Safari for things like text shadow. Internet Explorer 5.x browsers are not supported by this website.
Quote for Thought
The First Commandment:
you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength– Mark 12:30
