I am going to base my predictions for the year of 2012 on Sibli chart out of all other possible horoscopes of the U.S., since it appears to be most responsive to actual events.
As you may guess, 2012 is promising to be another interesting year.
Since 9/11/2001, every year has been interesting. Until then, I did not even care much about politics, economy, or even mundane astrology. Now that I am clearly part of the “99″%, my life is increasingly tied up with the socio-economic tides sweeping the planet. So now I am taking a closer look at the ominous 2012 – which, according to Maya people, signifies an end to a 5000+ years cycle of the human history.
While I have no doubt that the world is going to survive it, the world as we know it is already changing – just take the look around.
2012 is going to bring more changes, especially to the U.S., since we also have to go through presidential elections.
My money is on Obama, since his Vedic planetary cycles don’t show much change – it will continue to be difficult, unsettling and depressing for him.
Our country is bound to see more turmoil: February 2012 is going to see more “Occupy Wall Street” activity, as Uranus is going back to square off with the U.S. Venus, just as it did in September of 2011, when the movement took hold.
But there are going to be significant changes, as North Node is going over the ascendant in the Sibly chart.
In natal astrology, a Moon’s node going over ascendant or midheaven signifies drastic change in that person’s life. I don’t think it should be that much different in mundane astrology. So I wold expect significant changes for the U.S. that begin to mount as of mid-January.
A lot of it would have to do with economy, as Mars is turning retrograde on 1/24/12, slowing everything down business-wise. It will hold the world’s economy at stand-still until 4/14, when it finally goes direct.
It starts its retrograde motion in 23′ of Virgo, while sitting on the U.S.’ Neptune in 10th house of the Sibly chart. Neptune, meanwhile, is finishing going over the U.S.’ Moon, which it has been doing for most of 2011. I read it as confusion and deception at the helm of the U.S. government that is completely putting the country adrift, and the U.S.’ stand in the world comes into question once again. Quite possible, our credit rating may get downgraded again.
People are going to take to the street in greater numbers in February as Uranus squares the U.S. Venus and the Sun goes over the U.S. Moon.
Since Saturn is squaring the U.S. Pluto in the 2nd house (financial assets}, the dismal economic prospects are more than certain through out most of 2012, especially through the first half of the year.
Even though Mars goes direct in April, Venus turns retrograde on5/15/12 and until 6/27/12, when it turns direct, we find ourselves in socio-economic la-la land.
So, January – June of 2012, the business community is likely to find itself hang in limbo of uncertainties. Only as we touch the terra firma in July, we might be able to begin to assess the damage.
Meanwhile, Uranus and Pluto begin to square each other in the sky in June and keep on doing so through early October.
Since each of these planets is capable to bring a revolution on its own, 2 of them are bound to stir mankind in every corner of the world. Serious wars/ accidents/ natural phenomena are also quite possible when these 2 planets are at each other throats. Iran is going to be most affected, if one of the mundane chart I found for it is correct – since it places Iran’s Moon right under transiting Uranus and being squared by transiting Pluto.
China is also likely to be in the news because of sudden transformations, as its Sun is being opposed by Uranus and squared by Pluto at that time.
European Union, Greece and Israel don’t get a direct planetary hit, so they will pull through OK for now.
For the U.S., the Fall of 2012 brings more positive outlook and, in December, we may even begin to feel that troubles are behind us.
Of course, Pluto cruising through Capricorn until 2024 is not going to let us off the hook in 12/12. It will ensure that the world’s governments and corporations transform themselves completely by then, so it can begin to decide the human kind’s survival while moving through Aquarius.
But as far as 2012 is concerned, it is going to be one of the most tumultuous and difficult years in history, yet it does not spell the end of anything – not even the end of our troubles.
Posts Tagged ‘worry’
THE YEAR 2012
Posted by Ella Moss on November 26, 2011
Posted in American economy, astrology, economy, FINANCES, global economy, politics, predictions, Uncategorized | Tagged: 2012, 2012 predictions, 99%, astrological predictions, business, China, corporations, economy, European Union, financial crisis, global economy, goverment, Greece, Iran, Israel, mars, Maya, Mayan astrology, money, Neptune, Obama, Occupy Wall Street, Pluto, predictions, presidential elections, presidential elections predictions, Saturn, Sun, the U.S., Uranus, Venus, war, worry | Leave a Comment »
AMERICAN ECONOMY S.O.S.
Posted by Ella Moss on August 9, 2011
So it happened.
In my predictions in Financial Crisis – It’s Not Over Until It’s Over I was wrong by pinpointing 8/1/2010 as the crest of our economic troubles. The economic tsunami came exactly 1 year later.
I think it is because I have mistaken Mars for a trigger of the events. As I’ve said in my article The Moon, the trigger was the lunar eclipse that came on the darkest day of last year – the winter solstice. It fell on those sensitive degrees, marked by planetary war on American Venus that I have described in Financial Crisis article.
This lunar eclipse made things darker and bigger. Not only our economy has trembled, but the political debacle over debt-ceiling marked the crisis of our government as well.
Our country is in the free fall, just like financial markets, because our government was found to be absolutely inept.
Here I’d like to cite from an article I found on the internet today:
“Economics professor Bradford Delong, from the University of California-Berkeley, says the damage done through the six months of wrangling over the debt ceiling, which analysts note has been lifted 78 times since 1960 and 49 times under Republican presidents, was a distraction the US could ill afford.
Writing in the Australian Financial Review, Professor Delong decries the neglect of all the “useful policies that might have been debated and enacted, but were not”, citing climate change initiatives, policies to boost employment, education and healthcare financing, plus improvements to America’s “decaying infrastructure”. These policies, he believes, would help improve the economy in the long run and bring down unemployment that, according to the US Bureau of Statistics, is at a high of 9.2 per cent. Looming large also was the loss of standing as “conductor of the international economic orchestra”, Professor Delong wrote, warning that if the US can no longer be relied upon as the arbiter of global governance, then the world needs to develop “other institutions for global management” – and fast.”
Well, Chinese are already issuing warnings of dollar devaluation, acting as the financial cop of the world – the title previously reserved for the U.S. government.
We are sliding from our perch of super-power to the “also has been” super fast, and there are not enough grown-ups on the Capitol Hill to save us. I think I was overly optimistic in all my predictions. I think I should revise them as follows:
a) the U.S. is going to be marred in prolonged depression, with real unemployment (counting those who are no longer eligible for benefits) at about 30%. The wage and property deflation are going to make 90% of the population to be so poor as living hand-to-mouth. Meanwhile, groceries, gas and transit costs are going to grow at 10% – 20% inflation rates.
The economy is going to contract until 2014, when it may begin to show some growth again.
The majority of the population will remain poor for many years to come though, as policies and competition over jobs would wipe out unions and, with them, the remnants of the middle class. In other words, we are no longer going to be the consumer society, with 70% of economy depending on consumption.
b) The crime and civil unrest would become much more evident for many years to come.
c) Politics would continue to make our government more and more disfunctional
d) The good news is we are likely to stop making wars abroad
e) Europe is not likely to be spared either. Once Germany is going to find itself unable to carry the rest of the European states, European Union is likely to disintegrate back into miriad of states, and so will the euro.
f) Chinese economy will faulter as well, as dollar and euro falls, but it will survive and will take the super-power title
g)Russia, Canada, Australia, Brazil and India will fair much better, getting stronger over the next decade, while the U.S. and Europe are going to struggle to survive.
h) Africa, Afghanistan and Middle East are going to continue to be the worst places to live in, maintaining the global terror threat.
In other words, it sucks, and whatever Obama or the next administration is going to do is going to be too little too late.
Posted in American economy, astrology, economy, FINANCES, global economy, labor market, politics, predictions, Uncategorized | Tagged: Africa, astrological predictions, astrology, Capitol Hill, China, civil unrest, crime, dollar, economy, euro, Europe, financial crisis, global economy, government, great depression, India, mars, money, Moon, Obama, Pluto in Capricorn, politics, predictions, recession, terror, unemployment, war, worry | Leave a Comment »
THE ENEMIES IN OUR MIDST OR HOW TO KILL THE WORLD’S LARGEST ECONOMY
Posted by Ella Moss on June 11, 2011
I just heard on the news that the 3rd Al Queda biggie was killed, giving the U.S. the edge on that murky shapeless war on terror we have been officially waging since 2001.
While I am happy to hear these news, I think that even we were to win the 4 wars (1.this “war on terror”; 2. in Afghanistan; 3. in Iraq; 4. in Lybia), we’ve been waging since the fateful 2001 (and I am not counting the “war on drugs”), we are heading to lose our way of life.
It’s not the democracy I am worried about here, but material comfort and relative peace on the streets (outside of occasional shootings and muggings).
It appears that there has been another war waging, and it is on American economy.
It’s beginnings are murky. But I would trace it as far back as Reagan’s Administration, that first began an unofficial war on unions. Unions make labor-intensive manufacturing very expensive and eat into profits of investors.
Well, nobody likes unions (except for unions’ bosses), so what’s the big deal?
The big deal is that everybody likes the middle class.
The middle class is as essential to any economy, as an engine to a car. Without it, economy is dead.
Even if we were to end up with a few thousands of super rich dudes, while the rest of us would struggle to survive (i.e. the middle class would disappear completely), all the many billions of these super rich would not create the job growth a multi-million population requires. They would invest into emerging markets, not the dying ones.
Why would they create a factory of any kind in the U.S., where people are struggling to stretch a dollar to pay rent, bills and buy groceries and their discretional income is so tight that all they can afford is cheap Chinese goods in Walmart, when these super rich investors can build a factory in Brazil, or India, or same China, where people are eager to spend their increasing earnings?
By the way, is not it one of the main reasons, that the numbers of unemployed right now stay where they are despite us giving continuous tax breaks to these super rich?
Yes, the second attack on American economy began during the prosperous 1990s, when Clinton Administration signed away any kind of protection of American labor force, and internet was born (internet makes outsourcing a breeze).
Suddenly, American labor force had to compete with the labor force of other countries, and American people could no longer ask for wage increase, because the majority of the world’s labor force was so much cheaper and just as good.
It took about 10 years for Americans to notice that their incomes were stagnating while their bills grew. They kept waiting for their personal prosperity to come, while changing jobs, professions and investing into 401K and increasingly expensive real estate.
But Clinton Administration also approved the deregulation of financial markets.
Suddenly, the credit was so cheap and so available, that the American people have not noticed that their actual discretional income was dwindling to nothing.
Why worry, if one could still buy a McMansion, and buy even more stuff by turning the McMansion into an ATM machine?
Yes, 1990s were prosperous. The economy was booming as people were eager consumers. The problem was that everything was bought on credit rather then with actual money.
Everyone was expecting the actual income to catch up, as it used to.
But it did not, because so many jobs have either left the country or paid as much as in other (read CHEAPER) countries.
Eventually, the credit bubble had to burst, and it did in 2008.
If the federal government did not pump money into the banks that lost the money by lending it to population so indiscriminately, The economy would have simply collapse like it did in Argentina in 1990s.
Americans were saved, although suddenly they came face to face with their economic reality and realized they were so much poorer than a decade ago.
So many of them have lost their job, that those who did not no longer dared to ask for a wage increase or benefits or union perks. In fact, they started giving up their last benefits and perks just so they could keep a job.
And that is when the final attack on American economy began.
Since it was now the federal government that was pulling the economy down the road as its engine, the middle class, stalled, the enemies in our midst began to attack the federal government.
The ideas Obama put on the table were nothing short of brilliant: invest federal dollars into aging crumbling infrastructure and green economy – labor-intensive enterprises that must hire domestic labor force. Every created job would spur on 10s of other jobs, and the economy would begin humming again.
But the enemies in our midst thought otherwise. Suddenly, federal deficit began to be used as a panic-inspiring weapon of choice.
Of course, the surplus that Clinton Administration left the country with would have been a much better deal. But if credit is sparse everywhere else, how else would you come up with money needed to pump the economy?
The enemies in our midst said, “Let starve the federal government of tax income, let’s keep taxes low so the few super rich would invest their money into economy. The government is too big and lives beyond its means. Its deficit is going to bankrupt our children”.
Americans love their children, so anything threatening the kids works as a great scarecrow.
They are also badly educated (read my American Education Reform ).
So Obama’s proposals were decimated, the government began shedding its work force, unemployment came back to its pick numbers, and unions everywhere lost their power and benefits.
Now there is no one to pull our economy from the brink. Those who are employed, work at REDUCED wages, that are getting closer to the 3rd world range.
Meanwhile, every single life staple, like groceries, rent, cable bills, insurance, etc. doubled or more in price (as compared to 10 yrs ago or less). Even those who work at median salaries have less money to buy desirable but unnecessary things.
This means that businesses producing and selling anything that is not a life staple make less profit so they begin to shed their labor force.
The less there is labor force, the less income the government gets. Since deficit is now a dirty word, the government has no choice but shed its work force and cut services to the impoverished population.
Now the time came to put the final nails into the coffin of what used to be the largest world economy: refuse to raise the ceiling on federal credit.
Once the federal government loses its credit-worthiness, watch American economy collapse into THE GREATER THAN THE GREAT DEPRESSION ditch.
The idiot dream of labor-intensive manufacturers like Koch brothers would come true:
labor in America would become as cheap as in Africa.
Unfortunately, the American workers would no longer be able to afford using the toilet paper they manufacture for Koch brothers. Like their African brethren, they would have to use tree leaves to wipe their asses. So Koch brothers would eventually go broke too.
No, it is not the federal deficit that threatens the future of our children. It is our inability to discern the enemies in our midst.
As for the scary federal deficit, it was Reagan administration that first racked it up into the trillions. Then Bush administration turned the surplus into another multi-trillion dollar debt. No one screamed of deficit while republicans were in power. The congress did not attack neither of the republican presidents for taking us into expensive wars (Reagan’s Panama blitz, Nicaragua fiasco, etc.; Bush’s Afghanistan, Iraq and the amorphous war on terror).
No, I am not happy at all with Lybia war either. I just don’t think it matters much anymore.
Like I predicted in 2008, “FINANCIAL CRISIS – IT’S NOT OVER UNTIL IT’S OVER”
Posted in American economy, economy, education, education reform, FINANCES, global economy, labor market, opinion, personal finance, politics, predictions, Uncategorized | Tagged: Al Queda, Bush, deficit, economy, financial crisis, global economy, great depression, India, Iraq, money, news, Obama, outsourcing, politics, predictions, Reagan, recession, taxes, unemployment, war, worry | 5 Comments »
THE MOON
Posted by Ella Moss on March 20, 2011
Today, 3/19/11, the Moon comes closest to Earth in 18 years, and, as soon as it gets dark, I am heading across the street to the park to witness the most giant Moon of my life time.
To be sure, I’ve witnessed enormous moons in Catskills during summers of 2004 – 2006. The Moon was not anywhere near its perigee at that time, so I have no idea what has caused that phenomena.
The last time the Moon was at its perigee was in 1993 – the year my eldest nephew was born. He has conjunction of the Sun, the Moon, Venus and Mercury in Cancer. Since the Moon rules Cancer, he has got a truly powerful Moon in his chart!
He is a very bright young man. He aced through the best specialized public schools in NYC and now is studying in Hunter on full scholarship.
Everyone I’ve met with Sun / Moon conjuction in Cancer has impressed me with their powerful mind. When I was teaching at Manhattan Astrology School, I came across a few students with this combination. Without fail, they all were the brightest students of mine. They seemed to soak up my teachings so immediately and fully, as if they’ve read my mind and soak up my experience in addition to my spoken words.
Both, Cancer and Moon are ruled by water, which certainly adds psychic sensitivity to these people.
But Pisces, ruled by Neptune, is by far the most psychic of all zodiac signs. Yet my Pisces students and students with the Moon and / or ascendant in Pisces were much more ordinary. Also, regular Cancer students, or the students with the Moon or ascendant in Cancer did not impress me as much.
So it is the Sun/ Moon conjuction in Cancer that produces such agile minds.
In fact, people with Sun/ Moon conjunction in any sign tend to have a much greater IQ than average. Interestingly, many years ago, there was a lengthy article in one of the astrology magazines, where the author studied charts of members of some genius club in England. All members had to have 140+ IQ to be admitted.
The author produced 13 charts for that article, while studying Mercury positions there. What struck me though, that all of them contained Sun/ Moon conjunctions in various signs.
So to me, it is the Sun/ Moon conjunction that enhances our intellect, and, in my experience, this conjunction in Cancer trumps them all.
I should quickly add, that not having such conjunction does not lower your chances for brightness.
The mother of this nephew of mine has also been the brightest in my family for many years. She has no such conjuction, and her only planet in Cancer is Jupiter. Moreover, she was born in 1967 – an unremarkable year in terms of the Moon.
Now there is an even brighter person in our family: my other nephew, Anish Giri (born June 28, 1994), who is a chess prodigy. He met his final grandmaster norm at the age of 14 years, 7 months and 2 days when he beat Venezuelan GM Eduardo. He also became the youngest chess champion of Netherlands. On top of it, he is an excellent student and speaks 5 languages.
Yes, he is a Cancer, but with the Moon in Pisces. Like Cancer Sun/ Moon conjunction, this combination calls for extreme psychic impressionability, but it does not guarantee an exceptional IQ.
Interestingly, Vedic astrology favors full Moon charts when it comes to scoring higher intellect.
My own chart is such, and, although I never measured my IQ until a few years ago, I know that it must have been in 150+ range. I had photographic memory, was incredibly intuitive (my Moon is in Sagittarius – the sign of intuition) and managed to learn 4 years worth of middle and high-school physics in 3.5 days, scoring respectable B on the exam.
Unfortunately, the loss of almost all of my blood in 1998 robbed me of photographic memory, and then consistent lack of sleep for 3.5 yrs after giving birth to my son has taken another 20 points of my IQ. I am still bright enough to notice that I am not as smart as I used to be:)
But the point is, the Moon has a lot to do with how smart we are, much more so than Mercury – which represents the faculty of mind that is more akin to a computer. As we know, the most powerful computer would not be much of help to an idiot.
In traditional Western astrology, the quickness of the mind is measured by how fast the Moon was moving on the day of birth. Yet the Moon represents our feelings and emotions.
In Vedic astrology, the Moon represents the mind, period.
Yes, these 2 branches of astrology differ in much more ways than the what type of zodiac they use.
In Western astrology, the Moon invokes what we consider to be the soul: feelings, emotions, subconscious mind, while the Sun represents our self-identity (ego + super-ego). In Vedic, the Sun invokes the soul.
But those could be just cultural differences as in what the soul or mind/ consciousness mean to us.
What’s more interesting, that in Vedic astrology, the whole zodiac is dedicated to the Moon. Vedic astrology uses Siderial zodiac, which is based upon actual constellations of the ecliptic belt. These constellations are subdivided into 27 Moon mansions, and these 27 subdivisions represent the heart of Vedic astrology. Moreover, Vedic astrologers also like to read a chart from the position of the natal Moon.
This is so, perhaps, because emotional quotient of our lives is much more important to us then the events causing the emotions. In other words, we measure our lives not by how many breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.
But it also could be that by ruling our subconscious mind, the Moon truly rules our lives.
I watch Bachelor from time to time, and I found this last season to be particularly fascinating for this reason. The Bachelor, Brad Womack, seriously fell for a single mom, who lost the father of her child to a plane crush 6 years ago. Even though she declared falling in love with Brad, she kept saying that the dead man IS the love of her life. She also admitted to sabotaging all her consequent relationships. Now we know she did the same to Brad.
I believe, consciously she may have been ready for a new man in her life. She said, she dreamt of a wedding, and she did go on The Bachelor despite being intensely private and reserved.
But subconsciously she does not want a relationship for a few reasons:
a) She is terrified of the pain of a possible heart-break (she is aware of that)
b) She is afraid to diminish the memories of her first love or even to cheat on them, perhaps, by replacing them by an actual relationship
I doubt she is aware of this second reason, but it is most likely the main reason why she sabotages her relationships.
There is possibly the 3rd reason:
c) Her great love for the dead man makes her special, and she is afraid to lose that “specialness”.
In other words, as much as she appears to be altogether, incredibly poised and coiffed, subconsciously she is a total mess, and without years of therapy, she is likely to remain single forever.
There was one scene in The Bachelor, that was especially telling to me:
Brad comes over and tries to declare his palpable love for her by saying that he is ready to be the real father to her daughter. But instead of accepting this declaration for what it was, she is grilling him on what does he know about being a father.
So no matter how she may want a relationship consciously, she is most likely to go without it for subconscious reasons.
In fact, every time we fail at something we consciously desire, we should take a good look at our subconscious needs.
As another example of subconsciousness being truly in charge of our lives, I may give you my observations of the homeless men I’ve got to know while volunteering for Coalition For The Homeless some years ago: they all thought badly of money. They called it “The devil’s issue”, “the evil”, “the plague”, etc. I realized then that they all were homeless not because of mental illness, alcoholism, or drug addiction most of them suffered from – as there are plenty of rich crazies, alcoholics and drug-addicts. These ones were poor because subconsciously they were afraid of money.
When we come out of the womb, we are already equipped with our subconscious mind, as oppose to all other mental faculties that take some time to develop.
That’s why the Moon in a natal chart is also associated with the mother (the first person we get to know), and with nurturing (the first activity we are exposed to). As we begin to grow, these psychological roots expand to include home, family, country and all we know we belong to. And all these psychological roots are ruled by the Moon.
Memories, both conscious and subconscious, are how our psychological roots grow, and, of course, the Moon rules our memories.
People like me, with Mercury in Cancer (the sign ruled by the Moon) are famous for our excellent memories.
I am, maybe, more so than others, since I remember 27 of my many past lives.
Of course, not all of these memories occurred to me naturally. While only 2 have appeared to me consciously unprompted, the rest came via deep meditation, past lives regressions, recapitulation and other techniques.
This brings me to what I think the Moon really represents: our astral bodies.
When we die, we leave only physical body behind. But our souls have other bodies: astral, casual, etc. When we re-incarnate, the astral body keeps the imprints of all our previous lives. Those memories don’t disappear. They are simply relegated to the subconscious realm, and so are relatively easy to be accessed.
But like the real Moon that is visible to us only when the Sun sets, we can see our subconsciousness when the conscious mind is temporarily shut off. This is called hypnosis. After all, as a certified hypnotherapist, I should know this. And as such, I’ve been privileged to glimpse the incredible subconscious realm.
There, our calendar age easily coexist with our babyhood, and feelings generated by a past life centuries ago are as strong as if time did not exist.
In fact, to our subconsciousness TIME DOES NOT EXIST. It only knows the present, and it cannot differentiate between events of a life long past and the present.
It is also easily malleable – just like a baby. Yet our conscious mind -the grown up in us, represented by the Sun astrologically – is powerless before it. As long anyway, as it does not venture into the vast darkness of the subconsciousness.
Until then, we may only think we know why we relate to the world the way we do. The true reasons – the memories, the feelings – are buried in the Moon’s realm.
There are many good reasons for why the luminaries, the Sun and the Moon, are given rulership to the day (conscioness / the Sun) and the night (subconsciousness / the Moon) of our being. If you were, say, a serial killer in a previous life, you would not want these memories to surface now. You might not be able to live with yourself in this life.
Each life is given to us as an opportunity to redeem ourselves, and each new identity we develop when reincarnating is, in a sense, a clean slate that allows us to start anew. While our subconsciousness keeps track of all our karmic debts, not knowing them consciously helps finding new solutions to old problems.
Interestingly, this all powerful satellite of ours, the Moon, has been slowly moving away from us. While this is totally unnoticeable in one life time, 100,000 years ago the Moon would have seem as huge at its apogee as it does now at its perigee. I can only imagine what the slow disappearance of the Moon may mean for humanity. Does it mean that in a million years from now, humans will remember all their past lives? Does it mean that our descendants then would no longer be slaves to the misconceptions of their subconsciousness? Would they lose emotions completely or simply be able to control them perfectly?
Are we going to lose the tides of the oceans and would our volcanoes go silent?
When eclipses disappear, would it mean that so would the reasons for these bad omens?
Talking about eclipses, I think I wrote The Meaning Of Solstice Eclipse too soon. Look what happened in Japan. Plus, we started THE THIRD WAR in the Middle East, and Republicans are using whatever power they have regained to kill our fledging economy completely.
Normally, such terrible powers emanate only from Solar eclipses, but this one was LUNAR. And with the Moon at its perigee, it now appears to be more sinister than ever. Not to mention, that it ties into the great grand cross of 2010, falling into 1st cardinal degree.
Perhaps, I’ve misread Mars as the trigger point of that Grand Cross. I am relatively new to mundane astrology, and so eclipses are hard for me to read yet. But, perhaps, the real trigger was this sinister lunar eclipse that fell on the darkest night of the year. Certainly, 2011 is shaping as the most unsettling year for humanity, and the solstice eclipse is the obvious harbinger of this swirling darkness all around. After all, the darkness is the realm of the Moon.
Posted in American economy, astrology, economy, education, enlightenment, FINANCES, global economy, politics, predictions, spirituality, Uncategorized | Tagged: Anish Giri, astral body, astrological predictions, astrology, astrology school, Brad Womack, Cancer, economy, global economy, Grand Cross, homeless, hypnosis, IQ, Japan, karmic debts, life, Lunar Mansions, middle east, mind, money, Moon, mother, night, Pisces, politics, power, predictions, relationships, republicans, school, soul, subconsciousness, The Bachelor, the Sun, Vedic astrology, war, worry | 6 Comments »
LIBERATION
Posted by Ella Moss on December 5, 2010
The buildings blocks of human life are not DNA (that is just software). The building blocks of our lives are concepts: the concept of oneself, the concept of surrounding reality; the concept of happiness, etc.
When our concepts are wrong, so is the life that we build for ourselves, and we end up unhappy.
We may mask our unhappiness with chocolate, sex, drugs and/ or shopping – buying a temporary fix of serotonin so we don’t notice our true emotional state.
But when we refuse to see that our concepts are wrong, we get sick. Chronic illnesses are the result of chronic unhappiness.
Since most of us barricade ourselves behind the wrong concepts, most of us end up ill, and so pharmaceutical and medical industries are the major industries of the modern world.
Most of our concepts are wrong, because most of us watch TV and read newspapers.
But it is not negative news that kills us, it is the advertisement.
We all are victims of relentless marketing, because advertisement slips in the suggestions to our subconsciousness on what concepts we should acquire.
The beloved American Dream is: a wife / husband + 2.5 kids + dog / cat in a spacious McMansion with formal dining room, family room on top of living room, more bedrooms and bathrooms then one can count; manicured front lawn and a large backyard with a swimming pool, 2+ cars garage; college education and successful careers.
The suburbs are full of such families, and most of them are uniquely unhappy.
I too had a concept of happiness similar to that, except that I hate suburbs and prefer to live in a city but would love a house in a country as well.
This dream fell apart 3 years ago when I found myself physically ill because I no longer could stomach my marriage. So we’ve separated.
In fact, my concept of happiness began to destruct 5 years ago, when my husband said, “Let’s make a girl you’ve always wanted”. It’s true: since I was a little girl, I always wanted to have 2 children: first, a boy, and then a girl.
When my son was born, I wanted to wait at least 5 years before another pregnancy as he was a difficult baby and I always favored a larger age separation between children.
The timing of my husband’s offer was perfect. Yet I felt physically nauseated at the thought and knew the minute he said it that I really don’t want another child.
I underlined “really”, because that is when I began to realize that my concept of happiness did not suit me in my reality.
My life got only tougher in 2007, when, 2 months after I separated from my husband, I lost my major client and The Great Financial Crisis walked into my door.
Three years later, I am a single mom working 60+ hours / wk and on the verge of losing $300/ month of my child support and the babysitter (who is my estranged husband), because his unemployment benefits are set to expire in January. The only job he may get at this point would only cover his rent and food, so he would not be able to spare a dollar for his son. Once working, he would also be unable to pick his son from school twice a week for guitar lessons and choir practice.
That means, life for my son and I is going to get so much tougher.
As I was contemplating this while doing my X-Mass shopping, suddenly my thoughts went into completely different direction:
I started thinking of what REALLY makes me happy, and here’s list:
1) Watching TV with my son, while laying next to him on the couch
2) Dancing with my friends at my annual New Year’s Eve party (the only time I get to dance lately)
3) Talking with my friends in the park, while we watch our kids play and enjoy the beauty of the park
4) doing yoga by the lake in the summer
And then I started thinking back, collecting the very best moments in my life in my memory:
1) I was about 13 y.o. in a summer camp, when I discovered laying in the boat watching the sky. The boat would lull softly under me to the swishing of light waves, and the ever changing beauty of the sky would engross me completely
2) I was about 14 y.o. when I looked out of the window and was caught by the beauty of the falling snow so much that I ran outside and was dancing in the night with the snowflakes
3) I was 17 y.o., laying in the sweetly smelling summer field and feeling THE ONENESS with the earth, the grass, the sky….
4) I was 19 y.o., homeless, living in someone’s basement when THE LIGHT came over me and I SAW AND SPOKE TO GOD.
5) I was in my early twenties, galloping on the naked horse up the hill, when I suddenly thought, “This moment makes the whole life worth living”
6) The same thought occurred to me when in 1993 I was skiing down a sunny slope on Mount Snow, the day after I witnessed the first WTC bombing and quit my job.
7) In 1997, in the jungles of Nepal, I have encountered such a breath-taking peacefulness and beauty that, as I was sliding in the canoe next to man-eating crocodiles sunning by the shore, I could almost pet them, while Himalayan picks were hovering in the distance and the yellow flowers all around me went so well with the blue shades of the sky and the mountains….
8) The kiss I shared with my husband when our son was born
9) The first time my son was skiing the green slope
10) My son singing Santa Lucia at a concert, and strangers screaming “Bravo”, because he sang so beautifully…
Please, don’t get me wrong. I had many, many wonderful moments in my life, and many exciting adventures.
Still, if I die today, these 10 moments would be the crown glory of my life.
Meanwhile, I am killing myself making a buck so I could spend it on some thing I am told would make me or my son happy, worrying about his education, because he would need a good job in order to have his McMansion, 2.5 kids, a wife and a pet.
And no time to watch the sky, dance with the snow flakes, smell the roses…..
I was rich, and I was poor, I had 2 husbands and 3 weddings, and many, many interesting happenings in my life, but only 10 moments of pure and absolute joyful happiness.
Interestingly, most of these moments came to me when I’ve liberated myself from some concept of happiness so I could be one with naked reality.
So I am not going to stress myself of what is going to come in January once my ex’ unemployment benefits run out. I am going “to smell the roses”, making a point of noticing the beauty of each day around me, snuggling next to my son every evening and NOTICING MY HAPPINESS, instead of struggling to fit a concept of happiness and cry about what’s missing from it or MAY GO MISSING.
In fact, it is our fears of not getting something or losing something that make us miserable and cheap away at happiness that is our true Divine nature and so is always there, if only we could take time to notice… Everything else is but a concept.
I am liberating myself from concepts and fears created by them – that’s my New Year resolution.
Posted in American economy, economy, education, enlightenment, personal finance, spirituality | Tagged: advertisement, American dream, economy, fears, financial crisis, God, HAPPINESS, health care, Himalaya, illness, jobs, liberation, life, Love, marriage, money, mother, New Year resolution, parenthood, real estate, recession, relationships, smelling the roses, spirituality, unemployment, worry, X-Mass, X-Mass shopping | 3 Comments »
EAST VS WEST
Posted by Ella Moss on September 6, 2010
As I was growing up some 20-30 years past WWII in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), its ghosts were all around. Kids from my neighborhood would still blow up grenades, and other old and unused ammunition we’d find in the ground, sometimes with deadly consequences. Everyone had family stories about the war, and every family has lost someone to that war. My very own grandma had to kill her second child, who was born during a bombing, when Leningrad was under siege. Everyone was starving then, she had no milk, and nothing to feed her baby with. So one day, as the baby lay down next to her, crying, she put pillow to his face. Then she sent my 10 yr old father to fetch people to help to bury his brother. She went to her grave still crying about that…
So I was growing up certain that humanity would never have another terrible war like this one.
Well, I’m no longer so certain of our maturity.
It appears, that during the last 50 years of the past century, 2 worlds were growing: the Western and Eastern (Muslim). Western world has been prospering and fostering tolerance and acceptance. Muslim world was getting riches too, but the great majority of it still lived in poverty, and it grew dark, intolerant, jealous and hateful. So these 2 worlds grew apart, and then, one day, the Muslim world attacked the Western world.
It was in 1993, and I just happened to be at the WTC shopping mall where I bought a skiing bag 15 minutes before the bombing, as I was planning to go skiing with my friends that Friday.
After seing all those wounded, and, perhaps, some dead, I quit my job that day, and went skiing, determined to enjoy my every moment on earth.
But because only 6 people died, and the WTC kept on standing, no one, including me, paid attention to the growing Muslim menace.
Sure, I’ve noticed that all wars around me seemed to be involving muslims, and I was wondering to myself – what is it about that religion that makes people so blood thirsty…
But then, in 1997, I happened to find myself in Pakistan, living for 4 days with a fundamental Muslim family.
This was a very good, happy family. The wife and the mother of 4 children was obviously adored, respected and cherished. The 3 girls, ages 10, 15 and 17, were well taken care of, studying in school and planning to go to college (they all wanted to be doctors). All 4 women in the family laughed a lot and easily – a good sign of happy people. It was their choice to cover themselves in black burka, when they were heading out. They could not go outside their home past 6 pm, if unaccompanied by a male relative, but even that somehow turned out to be a sign of being cherished and protected.
When I was comparing my free western life to theirs, I could feel a pang of jealousy: neither me nor any other western woman I knew were as cherished, revered and protected. But then it is another topic altogether.
I just wanted to say that I was enamored by Pakistani people I’ve encountered there: they were so open, so hospitable, so generous…
And then, 9/11 happened.
This time I was about 14 blocks away. But I could still see the II WTC falling in the cloud of yellowish white dust.
As I was walking home all the way to the Northern tip of Manhattan (no one could get a ride that day), I was hating all Muslims and Arabs like I never hated anyone before. My heart was churning blackness.
But at about 55th St., a car stopped by me and a guy asked me if I need a ride. I gladly accepted (I had another 130+ blocks to go).
My driver just happened to be a Pakistani. I immediately thanked God for this “coincidence”, as I knew it was a reminder not to hate the whole nation or religion.
Of course, when I got home, the Palestinian family who lived across the hall from me was having a party, ordering pizza, smoking and dancing right there in the hallway….
Still I was sad, when nice Afghani people closed their fast food joint across the street that day, and never re-opened, being afraid of us, people waiving American flags.
And that’s how the Great War of East and West really began in earnest. West has attacked 3 Eastern countries since then, and one was destroyed completely. But because that country was completely innocent of all attacks on the West, the West has destroyed its reputation and further damaged its already wounded economy.
But now the Muslims have decided to exploit the West’s famous tolerance and build a mosque 2 blocks away from the ghosts of the 2 towers they have destroyed.
Of course, these are not the same Muslims that destroyed the Towers. Those are dead. These other Muslims who want to build the mosque may very well be very nice people (like those who hosted me in Pakistan).
But now we know that we are at war. And I know that there are Muslims like my Palestinian neighbors who partied on 9/11. Those kind of Muslims would look at this mosque like their flag raised above the graves of the enemy. That would hurt. A lot.
And I don’t think that we, the Western world, would lose whatever is left of our tolerance (let’s face it, we don’t have much left – but that’s another topic), if we ask those Muslims angling for the mosque to build it 20+ blocks away.
Just, please, don’t keep reminding us at the grave of 3,000 people about those who murdered them one sunny beautiful day 9 years ago….
Posted in opinion, politics, Uncategorized | Tagged: 9/11, bombing, East, flag, grave, Iraq, life, mosque, Muslims, NYC, Pakistan, politics, the WTC, tolerance, war, West, worry, WWII, WWIII | 3 Comments »
SHRINKING DOLLARS
Posted by Ella Moss on June 25, 2010
A few days ago a friend of mine confided that she did not have a raise in 10 years, and now her company is cutting her hours.
My friend is a physical therapist.
I am an owner of a tiny business in a completely different field. My income is neither wages nor salary. It is the net profit from my business. Yet I have the same predicament. My income remained flat for 12 years.
When I was single, living in a posh building in a posh part of town and paying $900 in monthly rent, which included utilities, that was a pretty good income, and I was certainly a middle class girl.
Moreover, my income increased steadily through the nineties, and I was certain of a decent future for myself.
I was so certain, in fact, that I did not bother to save for a rainy day.
I did whole a lot of traveling, skiing, and other fun things.
Then I got married, had a kid, moved to a cheaper part of town where I got an apartment twice as big for monthly rent just a bit higher than my previous digs.
My income remained the same because my subcontractors kept raising their rates but my clients began to cheapen out. Excuses were understandable: we did have a recession in 2000, then in 2001 (“9/11″), then in 2003, etc.
I probably could get out of my shell and get more clients to increase my income, but my kid and failing marriage kept me busy.
Then in the fall of 2007 I finally became a single mom, and 2 months later the FINANCIAL CRISIS hit me (my business is closely related to the insurance industry so I’ve experienced the crisis long before the rest of America did).
In 2008, my income went down significantly. So now I had no choice and got out of my shell, and got myself many more clients. I have also reduced rates of my subcontractors.
Yet my income did not jump. It simply went back to the pre-crisis level, because I had to cut my rates also. Everyone is in the bind.
I am not even talking about payment time-table that is now 4 times as long. Before the crisis, if a company took 2 months or longer to pay, I was on their case already. Now I don’t even bother with inquiries till 4 months past due.
It is my flat income that gets me, because my life is twice as expensive now. My rent now is $1510/mo, plus utilities that are twice what they used to be in 2000. My ground phone line that I use for fax only is also twice of what it used to be in 2000. So is my transportation expense, internet, my cell phones, etc.
My monthly grocery bill has grown now more than twice, even though my son and I eat much less than my ex (it used to be that half of my monthly grocery budget went to his propitiation).
In other words, it takes now twice the amount of dollars to cover living expenses, and they say there is no inflation.
There is no inflation, because our incomes have deflated.
It used to be that incomes would grow almost at the same rate as inflation of overall prices. It was called inflation, and was supposed to be a bad thing for economy.
Now I miss inflation. Because the value of my dollar has shrank 50% or more, but I don’t have more paper in my wallet to make up the lost value. My paper income remains flat, but the real income has shrank.
I am no longer a middle class girl, I am a working poor one, and my future looks pretty bleak. I have no extra dollar to save, I have no pension coming, and as an entrepreneur I have no other safety nets like unemployment benefits, which my ex is enjoying now.
Instead, I am working 3 times as much as I used to, and spend so much more just to get the same shrinking dollar.
I would not be writing about it, if it was just my predicament. I am writing about it, because 90% of Americans are in this shrinking boat.
Even the super-rich (like Warren Buffet or Bill Gates) have lost some dollar value thanks to real estate and stock market deflation. I am sure though that they are offsetting their rising living expense by paying less those who work for them or do business with them.
The simply rich (like Donald Trump) may actually feel much poorer because they lost just as much on stock market, real estate, Bernie Madoff and their leverage in reducing cost of business / living is not as great.
The upper middle class is now, for most part, is what middle class used to be, for the same reason.
Middle class… What middle class? Unless you are a civil servant, you would no longer fit that category. I bet your 401K keeps you awake at night.
There are so many things that went wrong for the dollar that there are not enough fingers on a hand to point them all out: derivatives, run-away credit, the cost of oil, global labor market…
Honestly, it is the global labor market that is the main culprit in stagnation of American income. But that is 10,000lbs gorilla in the room that no one is talking about. Trust me, immigration is the least of our problem. It is competition with the guys safely in their native third world countries that is doing us in. No one is talking about it on CNN, because business is happy with reduced labor costs. Except that most businesspeople don’t realize yet that spending their dollars in China or Africa shrinks consumption in America, which, inevitably, leads to their profit remaining flat too despite the reduced labor costs.
Simple economy101: wealth is produced where goods are produced.
The great minds who decided to open the labor market in 1990s must have thought as follows:
As other countries get richer, there are going to be more markets for American goods, so America would get richer too.
They did not take in consideration, however, that American production would not be able to compete with cheaper labor costs elsewhere and would shut down, impoverishing our country for the sake of China, Uganda and so on.
The only reason we did not feel the pinch right away was the inflated real estate market that was still producing local wealth. With wind taken out of real estate, we are finally facing reality.
And, since Obama Administration was not able to push through another emergency unemployment benefits bill, we soon are going to see the third world reality right here at home.
These changes cannot really be amended anymore. With the advent of the internet, Jinny of American wealth has completely left the bottle and cannot be re-captured. We are looking at the dawn of new world, where Russia (the richest country in natural resources), China (the richest country in labor resources) and India (the richest country in intellectual resources) are going to compete for new super-power title (my money is on China, since it is much more organized); the U.S., Europe, Canada, Australia and Brazil are going to be the second world, and the rest remain in the 3rd place. The jury is out on Arab countries rich with oil. If the green economy takes hold, they are going to be pushed back into the third world. They may also simply kill themselves with suicide bombers, expanded Taliban, etc.
SO, PLEASE, AMERICA, BUY AMERICAN PRODUCTS AND USE LOCAL SERVICES!
But, then, again, who can afford American products now when American dollar has shrunk so much…
Well, I am griping now, yet I know there is going to be more to gripe about a month from now… Read my previous article on that.
Posted in American economy, economy, FINANCES, global economy, labor market, personal finance, predictions, Uncategorized | Tagged: 401K, American economy, Bill Gates, Brazil, budget, business, China, deflation, dollar, Donald Trump, economy, economy solutions, Europe, expense, financial crisis, global economy, immigration, income, India, inflation, labor market, living expense, money, Obama, Obama Administration, predictions, Russia, savings, suicide bombers, supeer-power, unemployment, unemployment benefits, value, Warren Buffet, wealth, worry | 5 Comments »
MY KINDER UNIVERSE
Posted by Ella Moss on July 21, 2009
When my son was 1.5 y.o., I joined the majority of Russian community in NYC and rented a “dacha” in Catskills for a summer.
“Dachas” are cottages in a small community of summer residents, located in rural areas, often by a lake.
The cottages offer minimal amenities. “Dachniki” must bring with them bedding, pans and pens, and everything else that would sustain them for 2 months of mostly outdoor living.
Summers in NYC tend to be hot and humid. Working parents must either send their kids to camps or hire babysitters (could be more expensive). When kids are too young for camps, it could be especially hard on parents, as I quickly found out.
Luckily, someone suggested a “dacha”. I packed half of my apartment and the kid, and off to the woods I went.
Of course, I could not afford to spend the whole summer here, so we have arranged 2-weeks shifts with all the relatives we could find.
On dachas, kids and parents enjoy the company and freedom (there is no need to watch them every second, as they play in the meadows of an enclosed community, with plenty of friendly adults seeing their every move).
I fell in love with the lazy summer days by the lake, and could no longer contemplate a summer without dacha.
Of course, once my son was old enough for summer camp, we cut the season to a month (arranging shifts with relatives was too complicated), and for 3 weeks in August our son would shuttle daily to Nyak from NYC, where his day camp was located.
We could afford this kind of summer kid-care thanks to tax returns on my husband’s w-2 income. My business has been too tiny to afford anything like that.
Even though my husband and I separated 2 yrs ago, we kept filing jointly specifically for this purpose.
But as of this January, he has been laid off, and there are not going to be any tax returns for us next year.
I was coming this July to my little heaven in Catskills, knowing that this was to be the last time.
As my stay here began nearing the end (this Sunday we are leaving), I began to be more and more upset.
I was trying to imagine a summer with no dacha or summer camp:
My son would have to tag along to my work (and I work all over the city) every day. Of course, he would practice reading in Russian on the subway, and then quietly play his DS while I work, and then we would visit our park in the evening.
On weekends, we could go to beaches on Brighton Beach, Long Island or Staten Island. It would be hot, and the water would be cold and dirty…
It would be a very lonely summer for him (all his friends are going to be away on dachas and in camps, but life is life, right?
I thought about getting a dog to brighten his days, but how would we take a puppy to my work? – Scratch that…
Last night, thinking of all that, I could not sleep, so I went out on my porch to have a cigarette.
The lake at dawn was simmering, birds were having a big breakfast, while chirping away, and the beauty of all that was breath-taking.
“I cannot give this up”, I thought. “In fact, for years now my brain has been working over-time to find a way for me to live like that a year round.
This dacha is taylor-made for me by God: I’ve got the best view of the lake from my porch. I have a deck to do my yoga on. I can go for a swim without taking even a towel with me – my cottage is 25 feet from the incredible pristine spring water of this lake. People are great. My friends from NYC live on dachas a walking distance away. If I need company, it’s here; if I need solitude, I have it. I can work here. I have internet, and my cell is working here, so I can network and take orders.
And only $3,000 stand between this, and a 2-months torture for me and my son. This is not a big money. $3,000 can buy 10 days on Bagamas, 1 week of skiing in Catskills, or 1 month here. I am certain that just like God found this perfect place for me, He can find this money for me too.”
I prayed, and peace came upon me. That minute I knew, that I should leave a deposit for the next year. My Universe is kind. It knows no recessions, and is always ready to supply all my needs. This is what I beleve, and this is what I shall have.
Posted in enlightenment, spirituality, Uncategorized | Tagged: Catskills, child-care, economy, Faith, God, kids, kind Universe, laid off, money, recession, spirituality, summer, tax returns, taxes, unemployment, vacation, worry | 6 Comments »
