In the Midst of Joy, Sorrow

Proposition 8, banning gay marriage in California has now passed, basically 'un-marrying' all those who had rushed to take advantage of the right to be wed while it still stood.

Bummer for Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi and all those other smug queers, eh? They were getting mighty uppity. Good thing they got put in their place.

Here are the salient paragraphs from the New York Times' reportage today:

California Voters Ban Gay Marriage

By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD and ABBY GOODNOUGH

LOS ANGELES — California voters have adopted a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, The Associated Press reported Wednesday, joining voters in two other states who went to the polls Tuesday to overturn such unions.

. . .

Only three states this year had ballots that included bans on same-sex marriage, compared with 8 in 2006 and 11 in 2004.

The ban passed in all three states — the other two being Florida and Arizona — but its success in California, a trend-setter in so many arenas, was seen as major defeat for gay rights activists.

A total of $73 million was spent on the race there, a record for a ballot measure on a social issue, resulting in incessant television and radio commercials from both sides. Advocates of the ban played up their belief that without it, children could be taught about gay marriage in schools, while opponents likened approval to denying fundamental civil rights.

The measure came only months after California’s highest court ruled it constitutional, spurring thousands of gay couples to marry there.

“We pick ourselves up and trudge on,” said Kate Kendall, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights. “There has been enormous movement in favor of full equality in eight short years. That is the direction this is heading, and if it’s not today or it’s not tomorrow, it will be soon.”

The article may be found in full here. Further coverage can be found at abc local's site here.

Meanwhile, you can sample the sort of viewpoint behind 'Yes on 8', at a blog run by Stephen Black of Oklahoma, a self-professed recoverer from, among other things "sex, drugs, sexual abuse, sexual distortions, and identity conflict in homosexuality".

The post of Black's that I'm referring to - actually an article by the similarly-minded Oklahoma pastor Paul Blair - has the following highlights:

We in America have taken great care for the well being of our fellow man.

We require seat belts to be worn in order to save lives. Cigarette smoking is discouraged because of the increased risk of lung cancer. We even have limitations on vending machines in schools because of the danger of obesity. Yet, if someone dares raise a question about the obvious dangers associated with homosexual behavior, that person is labeled a homophobe. It is more loving to speak the truth in love than to placate those practicing self-destructive behavior.

Homosexuality is dangerous. Homosexuality is sinful. Homosexual marriage will destroy the very existence of the home in America. Never in the history of America is the traditional home facing the threat of extinction as it is today. Christians, we must take a right stand and cast our vote in defense of the sanctity of the Traditional Judeo-Christian Home. There are over 60 million “Evangelical” (political definition of professing believers with more traditional beliefs) Christians in America. We need a Spiritual Revolution and Awakening in America. If we wake up, pray up, show up and vote we can BEGIN to take a right stand for America.

As ever, you can read the whole of the post here.





The above image was taken from this site.

Yes, He Could. Yes, They Did.

I cannot begin to say how much it meant to me to have been able to witness first-hand the election of the US' first Black president from the heart of Harlem.

The above image was snapped in the wee hours of this morning as I perched precariously on top of a small table at the back of the packed 8th Avenue restaurant/bar Londell's, watching and listening to those momentous images and words of president-elect, Barack Hussein Obama. People round me - black and white alike - whooped, clapped and wept openly. I was no exception.

Let the healing begin, and praises to the divine intelligences that be. That's God to me.

Obama, 2012 and the Saturn-Uranus face-off

You may ask, what has Obama to do with 2012 and today's exact Saturn-Uranus opposition, which has been much touted across the Astroblogosphere in the past six months. Here's the connection that I can see - and bear in mind that I don't profess to be an advanced astrologer (though I'm slowly getting there - just took NCGR's level one exam towards professional certification this past Sunday):

Re. 2012 and the dreaded end of the Mayan Long Count, etc: President Barack Obama could be the metaphorical pole-shift which the survivalists are expecting to end this present age on December 21, 2012, according to that ancient Mesoamerican calendar. Except Obama's presidency will only just have got cooking by the time the next election date swings round - November 6, 2012 - only a month away from the fateful Winter's Solstice that the doomsayers have marked down on the calendar as the end of the age.

My guess is that, irrespective of whether Obama gets a second term (since I'm counting on him to make history today) or not, his election will have set in motion a change (Uranus) so profound, that it will not merely challenge the traditional hierarchies (Saturn) of our globalised world, but force international leaders to confront the limitations of power to such a degree that the current patterns of geopolitics will have to shift in response.

Of course, I would hate for the survivalists to be right anyway - just take a glance at some of my earlier posts - on the other hand, the cultural paradigm shift has already begun, given the unique nature of how this election was waged. Check out the following from today's New York Times online:

After Epic Campaign, Voters Go to Polls
by Adam Nagourney

The 2008 race for the White House that comes to an end on Tuesday fundamentally upended the way presidential campaigns are fought in this country, a legacy that has almost been lost with all the attention being paid to the battle between Senators John McCain and Barack Obama.

It has rewritten the rules on how to reach voters, raise money, organize supporters, manage the news media, track and mold public opinion, and wage — and withstand — political attacks, including many carried by blogs that did not exist four years ago. It has challenged the consensus view of the American electoral battleground, suggesting that Democrats can at a minimum be competitive in states and regions that had long been Republican strongholds.

The size and makeup of the electorate could be changed because of efforts by Democrats to register and turn out new black, Hispanic and young voters. This shift may have long-lasting ramifications for what the parties do to build enduring coalitions, especially if intensive and technologically-driven voter turnout programs succeed in getting more people to the polls. Mr. McCain’s advisers expect a record-shattering turnout of 130 million people, many being brought into the political process for the first time.

And so on - you can read the rest here.

Meanwhile, Lynn Hayes, one of my favourite astrobloggers has a great, more technical analysis on the Saturn-Uranus face-off here, and includes some very positive transits for today, too. Not least, a Moon-Jupiter conjunction in Capricorn - which bodes well for the masses (Moon) electing a more inclusive, expansive (Jupiter) government - trined by a supportive, responsible Saturn in Virgo, and sextiled by a compassionate, humanitarian and progressive Uranus in Pisces.

Well, that's the positive spin, at least, and I'm going to erase thoughts of a potential GOP Old Washingtonian (Saturn) last minute victory over the forces of Change (Uranus). Then again, as any modern astrologer will tell you, no planet, symbolically, is all positive or negative. It all depends on how its energy is harnessed. So Uranus is less-than-warm-and-cuddly in its association with sudden 'liberation' from people/situations, whether you're ready for such freedom or not, and Saturn is not-as-limiting as the bad astro-press would have you believe, given his connection to the structures that ground and support us.

Basically, I'm not expecting a miraculous, overnight Shangri-La when Obama takes the White House, but hope, rather, for the best blend of the opposing planets' energies - namely a creative, positive dialogue between the forces of tradition, conservatism and strong government and the powers of innovation, radical change and individualism.

Meanwhile, I'll be glad when today is over and we get the final result.

New Hampshire and Spiritual Politics

Since the world is agog with the upcoming results of the New Hampshire caucus in the US presidential race, after the recent surprise triumph of Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee, I'm posting a highly interesting analysis of what the results of the second key caucus might mean on a spiritual level.

Below is an excerpt from the beliefnet.com blog of Neale Donald Walsch, one of today's most interesting and gifted New Age authors, and responsible for the bestselling Conversations With God series.

Arguing that politics is a demonstration of spirituality (a view that, I, personally, agree with, irrespective of where we group ourselves formally in terms of faith/religion), Walsch writes:

"Did faith play any role in the Iowa results? I think it is obvious that it did. Surely on the GOP side there is no question that Mike Huckabee's pedigree as a Baptist minister helped him tremendously. Whether that will count as much in New Hampshire will be the Big Question tomorrow. Likewise, if there really is some hesitation among the electorate about putting a Mormon in the White House (there should not be, and I would hope with all my might that we would never go to that place any more in America), there are analysts who say that this would be more likely to show up in Iowa -- a religiously conservative state -- than in New Hampshire...a neighbor of the state where Romney was elected governor.

"On the Democratic side, some fascinating stuff in play. Exit polls showed that while Clinton garnered the majority of votes from woman caucus goers over age 60, those under 60 voted overwhelmingly for Obama. This means that Obama captured the youth vote...and if he can do that across America, the Democratic nomination is his -- presuming he can get young people to actually go to the polls.

"That is not a small question. Young people are notoriously more apathetic than senior citizens when it comes to voting -- and perhaps for good reason. They have felt, in most recent years, disaffected and disenfranchised, with their views largely marginalized. Until now. They may be seeing Barack Obama as their Voice within The System. And wouldn't that be interesting...

"Is America ready -- at last -- to elect a black person President of the United States? I think it would be historically, socially, and politically beyond exciting. So, too, if we elected a Mormon. Or a woman. Or an Hispanic. Or an openly gay person.

"This is just such an historic primary season, because we have all of those kinds of candidates running for President -- and that says something remarkable about the place to which we have matured as an electorate. If politics is our spirituality demonstrated, we must have come to adopt a wonderfully inclusive spirituality in America. And I am not surprised. Tomorrow's God predicts flat out that we will create within the next 25 to 30 years an entirely new God -- that is, a new kind of God, a new understanding of the only God there ever was, is now, or ever will be."

You can read the rest of his fascinating post here.