Good morning, and welcome to the Monday Poll Round-Up here in the frozen north. We’re enjoying unusually low temperatures for this part of the world, and join our brethren on the eastern coast of the US in power outages, ice storms, and slippery mayhem of all kinds. The weather was probably a big factor in the answers to the question concerning weekend plans, with a full 25% choosing escape of some kind (a hole, partying, or isolation fueled by paranoia) and another 25% going for a mini-vacation; I hope all of you got the relief and rejeuvenation you sought. As for the other half of respondents, we gritted our teeth and dealt as best we could, maybe not the smartest strategy for our mental health; joining a friend in a hole or at a party might have been a better choice, considering the weather induced stress I’m seeing all around me this morning!

Observation of the Nodes as they move through the natal chart might be higher on many people’s lists in future; it’s not surprising that half of respondents said they hadn’t really tracked the transiting Nodes progress or effects, while others have a leg up on us: 29% say they count on contact for positive change, and 21% for negative–kudos to those who’ve been observing this all along!

And kudos to our president for such spry reflexes and for noting that the freedom to hurl that shoe was something that likely would not have existed before the US arrival, but thumbs down on his inability to take this expression of outrage and frustration seriously (and where, I wondered, were the Secret Service–shouldn’t they have been on that guy as soon as he stood up and raised his arm?) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8GOrc0-Ygg  It seems imperative to me that Bush treat this journalist’s quite literal acting out of Uranus in Pisces seriously. That energy is nearing the natural stress point that occurs for any energy late in a sign, and with Uranus this could signal a serious rejection of a continued US presence in Iraq through explosive rebellion, an attempt to seek an Iraqi version of freedom that quite naturally does not include the US as paternalistic overseer.

The journalist involved, who normally reports on Sadir City, a minority stronghold and hotbed of violence, has, during the course of this invasion and occupation, been kidnapped, tortured, and lost family members; unfortunately, that’s not an uncommon tale–so who can blame those who’ve had their lives so thoroughly disrupted when they object to the ongoing imposition? The danger here is seen clearly in Bush’s dismissal of this man as kooky, a nut, someone who just did something silly for attention; I see this man as a symbol of seething frustration–and when someone shows their profound anger and upset, one must respect and acknowledge that, even when one doesn’t agree with it. Mr. Bush failed to do so, and in denigrating this man as just a goofball he denigrates the serious feelings of a wide variety of persons, both inside and outside of Iraq, who want this to end. I have one final question for Mr. Bush: if this man was just an attention seeker, why was he arrested, and at this time continues to be held, as if he were a real threat? You can’t have it both ways, George.

And finally we have the plethora of answers gleaned from the question on relationships. We can’t talk absolute numbers since more than one answer from each person was accepted, but we can see some trends among readers of this blog. Nobody put love relationships first and didn’t care about other relationships, and nobody listed friends as a replacement for family; the latter surprised me, as there had been a trend in the late 90s/ early 00s that suggested especially among young professional city dwellers that they were gathering together and creating quasi-families for holiday and social events. I’m wondering if the trend back to connection with actual family isn’t in large part based on the growing economic difficulties; after all, if home is the place that has to take you in when you come to the door, for most people that would hands down be relatives, especially in these tough times.

Registering with a note of misanthropy (or perhaps just a healthy Self-interest) are the 8% who see relationships as needless impediments, and the 8% who love things other than people (and this latter I found very healthy–these are the people who outlive all their peers because they are not too interdependent or enmeshed with others– as long as you’re talking about interests that make living worthwhile, and not Eros centered attention to objects!) But I’m truly concerned with the 3% who believe there’s only one right mate for them, the 15% who hold relationships to impossible ideals, and the 25% (!) who are lonely at a Soul level. My heart goes out to all of you. My prescription to you, as both an astrologer and a human being, is to work on your relationship with yourself and to the Universe; supportive and fulfilling relationships come when that is the focus. Though my answer may sound glib, and is certainly more easily said than done, it is the core of any true happiness, and as such is something we all deserve.

And have a great Monday!