What’s Happening in June-July (and through 2026!)

This New Moon Annular Solar eclipse introduces a new focus wherever we have 20 Gemini with a theme of eliminating old perspectives and attitudes to purify our mind and lives. We’ll all take a look back to find a new view of new ideas to be externalized, purified of old distractions, deflections, and misdirected energy responses, with our task to assimilate all which we can use, and let go of nonessentials.

This Solar eclipse begins 4 weeks (and 5 years) of sending and receiving specific types of knowledge, so get and stay clear about what roles you’re playing and not playing while opening to serendipity wherever we have early Pisces and Cancer, mid-Gemini and late Pisces, as well as the signs opposing these zones. This will be a great eclipse for those who open to interactive blessings and unique situations where they can practice their gifts. I’ll explain more in part 3 with the aspects.

The May New Moon has given us a month of signals from Spirit that we are done with our ordeal and can embrace a new emotional and/or social future. Magic and mystery have been n the air as we’ve moved through an extraordinarily favorable turning point with seeds and structures of profound spiritual transformation through a quickening still in process. This began to be fulfilled at the recent Full Moon Total Lunar Eclipse distributing new forms of global wisdom for many months to come.

We’ve already accomplished Stage One of our “graduation into a new realm of Being,” and now are in a phase of continuing our evolutionary acceleration on the basis of the February Mercury retrograde themes now being triggered by the current Mercury retrograde combined with Saturn retrograde. We’re in a time of pruning, shaping, expressing, reviewing, revising, and re-evaluating many ideas so we can eliminate those which distract from what’s important. This mental purification process is like “peeling an onion,” in that dead layers must be removed to get to the heart of the matter.

Jupiter on the degree of its retrograde station indicates that whatever else is eliminated and/or purified in some way will leave us with a sense of “the indestructible elements” of our Being. Open to a greater compassion and wisdom as you leave many ideas and attitudes behind, walking into unknown greater worlds. Compassion is a blessing which allows the grace of time passages to happen.

An Overview of the New Moon

Today we’ll do an overview of the Lunation and some of its primary qualities. In part 3 we’ll cover Sabian Symbols, aspects, distributions, and patterns.

This actional-material distributing and clarifying New Moon Annular Solar eclipse at 20 Gemini occurs at 3:53 am PDT, 11:53 am BST on June 10. This will mix things up, allowing us to assimilate new information and rearrange the pieces of various life puzzles. Growth is toward “new vistas of conscious, concrete activity” which will come forth over the next 4 weeks (and 5 years) as we purify our minds and lives of lesser things and attitudes. If there’s confusion, be clear about what role you’re playing and remember that sometimes we need time to re-think or re-evaluate a plan or approach before we can execute a major effort.

Now that Saturn has gone stationary retrograde and Uranus continues to move through the second decan of Taurus, we’re still in the heart of the intensity of Saturn square Uranus, since any transit through 11-15 Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius and 26-30 Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces triggers the square. Still, because there are favorable aspects to Uranus at this time, we can use the tension of the square to release favorable Uranian energy through Saturn. The friction of Saturn square Uranus is helping us to understand our ability to make conscious choices about what to do and what can be ignored.

This square allows us to see the permanent patterns behind all things even as there is tremendous catabolic activity breaking down old structures, rules, and limitations. We all are seeing what’s important and learning to ignore the unimportant while expressing our part to play in the larger spiritual group(s) we’re involved in, demonstrating good Leo and/or Scorpio energies as circumstances require. Trust the process which brought you to this point of revelation and relative peace and enjoyment, since it opens many doors to new vistas.

A Look Back - Six Consecutive New Moons Were at the 24th Degree of their Signs

It is remarkable that we had six consecutive New Moons at the 24th degree of their signs. Each of these fell at a “technique” degree in its span, and the 24th degree always falls in the emotional, social, and cultural 5 degree span (“Face”) of its sign. For advanced analysis of this profound sequence, take a look at the aspect patterns it set into play with the outer planets, especially Pluto and Neptune.

The run of New Moons began in October 2020. The first squared Pluto at 24 Libra, the second and third sextiled and semi-sextiled Pluto from 24 Scorpio and Sagittarius, the fourth conjuncted Pluto at 24 Capricorn, and the fifth and sixth opened to a semi-sextile and sextile in February and March. Check out where each of these fell in your chart, since those are the “emergent techniques,” whether emotional or social, in play since last October.

As I offered in previous months, the New Moons of October, November, and December 2020 were all outside the outer planet occupied span, whereas the New Moons of January, February, and March 2021 all fell within the occupied span. So the initial three of the six represented the harvest of the old, while the 2021 New Moons represented an opening of the new Aquarius energies which will dominate the next 20 years, as well as the next two millennia after the mid-point of this century.

Gemini Explores and Expresses Information About the Larger Aquarian Evolutionary Tides

This New Moon will jumpstart Gemini energy wherever it falls in our chart. Wherever we have Gemini will be a focus of a widespread and varied activity in our lives. As Gemini is a Mutable sign, this Lunation begins a month of sending and receiving information and perspectives, comparing and contrasting various types of perceptions so we may purify our minds and see that not all pieces belong to all puzzles, with some needing to be set aside while we take care of more important matters. This distributes the dynamic activity, new life, and new initiatives launched since January 2021.

Because many cycles of future Aquarian Age patterns were set into motion March and December 2021 which powered up during the January and February transits across the Grand Mutation point at 1 Aquarius, we’re now rapidly advancing into the new Aquarian Era. Gemini, being the fifth sign from Aquarius, is the natural expression of Aquarius, projecting its enthusiasms in creative ways Aquarius needs to flower in its 10th sign of Scorpio. This will bring us reviews, reflections, reconsiderations, and rehearsals in our Aquarian growth toward making greater contributions in our world.

A Look Back - The Great Compression in Capricorn Still Affects Us

In the first 90 days of 2020, we had a “Great Compression” of planets involving Sun, Moon, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto all making conjunctions in the last decan of Capricorn, setting off a number of Saturn cycles, one of which will last 33 years! We then began an accelerated phase of our collective spiritual evolution which will take us from the threshold of the Age of Aquarius into the Age itself. You can find out more about the very powerful Sun, Mercury, and Saturn's conjunctions with Pluto by revisiting The Great Compression of January 2020 – Mercury, Sun, Saturn and Pluto all Conjunct in Capricorn. That lays out the long wave patterns set into motion then.

Because of the Capricorn conjunctions set in motion in 2020, we reorganized our lives wherever we have late Capricorn in our charts. These cycles were launched short term by Mars’ transit of Capricorn in March as it crossed those points and made its own contacts with Jupiter and Pluto. Add Jupiter’s three transits on all the conjunction points between 21-25 Capricorn between March and November 2020, it’s easy to see that for better or worse things were “expansively purified.” The January 2021 New Moon at 24 Capricorn activated those conjunctions in new ways.

The last conjunction in the 2020 series was Mars conjunct Saturn at 1 Aquarius on March 31, setting a cycle into motion which began to expand into a global system at the December 2020 Grand Mutation. That Jupiter/Saturn conjunction launched both a new 20 year Aquarian cycle AND a new 200 year era of Jupiter/Saturn conjunctions in Air signs. That means no more of the materialism of the past 200 years, with more of a focus on our commonality and ability to share ideas over the next 200!

Saturn’s 90 day visit to Aquarius in April, May, and June 2020 began the countdown to a new 200 year era! On this “Edge of Cosmic Time” we have been offered visions of a greater good for a greater number, and because Aquarius energies have replaced the Capricorn energies which dominated the past 2 years, Saturn remains a major player on the main stage, helping us see a more timeless role to play to help create a better world. What is your purpose? What structures and self-disciplines do you need to fulfill the ideal of that purpose?

Occupied Signs and Oppositions

We’ve now entered the time of the year when all the inner planets and Mars are outside the outer planet occupied span between late Capricorn and early Taurus. We’ve now begun a new time of experiencing Gemini, Cancer, and Leo energies, thus expanding the Pluto to Uranus span to include about half the zodiac. That also means we’ve begun this year’s oppositions between the inner planets and the outer planets as the inners move from late Cancer through mid-Scorpio.

Of course, it you have planets in late Cancer, mid- Leo, the first few degrees or last decan of Virgo, or mid-Scorpio you are going through some VERY long wave outer planet oppositions, with potential for very high awareness of how to ground new ideals, new public expression, and new ways to related to your larger spiritual group. The various types of the “Tension of Opposites” involved in those signs will come to the fore as the recent Lunar and current Solar Eclipses take away old Gemini, Cancer, Sagittarius, and Capricorn patterns, allowing newer ones to take shape.

The Sun/Moon Sequence and Its Shifts

There are two patterns: one with the Sun in the same sign as the Sun in the following Full Moon (New Moon between 1-15 degrees of a sign), and one with the Sun in a different sign than it’s in at the following Full Moon (New Moon between 16-30 degrees of a sign). I term these the “Natural” pattern and the “Alternate” pattern, since the Natural pattern shows a continuity of the Light, whereas the Alternate pattern bridges the Light across two signs.

We are currently well into the “alternate” Sun/Moon relationships, as this New Moon eclipse is the twelfth month of the New Moon Sun being in a different sign than the following Full Moon Sun. Each pattern has its importance in the Soli-Lunar sequence, and we’re currently “bridging the Light” across two different Light signs in the Lunation cycle! While this month’s New Moon is at 20 Gemini, the coming Full Moon Sun is at 4 Cancer.

Broader Cycles

In July 2017 the New Moon Sun was at 1 Leo, which was the fifteenth in that sequence. The next Full Moon had the Sun at 16 Leo, and finished the run of Full Moons with the Sun in the same sign as the preceding New Moon Sun. The following New Moon was the August 2017 Solar eclipse at 29 Leo which portended the devastation of America, when we shifted to the second (reverse) pattern, since that New Moon Solar eclipse was followed by a Full Moon with the Sun at 14 Virgo and Moon at 14 Pisces.

We were in this “reversed order” between August 2017 and April 2019. Between April 2019 and June 2020 we were back in “the natural order.” We will finish this reversed order in August 2021. I also explain more about this phenomenon and what it means in the Full Moon articles.

The New Moons and Full Moons are “God’s footprints in time.” Each shows the next in the 12 phases of how things come to be each year. The cycle could be described as follows: Life energy is initiated in Aries, substantiated in Taurus, explored in Gemini, grounded in Cancer, renewed and creatively expressed in Leo, refined and ordered in Virgo, balanced and made pleasing in Libra, purified and focused in Scorpio, expanded in Sagittarius, organized in Capricorn, solidified into a vision in Aquarius, and ended/perpetuated in Pisces.

Jupiter and Saturn

We had four New Moons with Saturn in early Aquarius between March and June 2020 before it went back into Capricorn. This is the sixth New Moon of the new Saturn in Aquarius era which will last until the New Moon of February 2023. We are now in the second year of the cycle set into motion at its rare and very powerful conjunction with Pluto in Capricorn in January 2020, with an Aquarian influence due to Saturn.

Taking a look back, in 2018 Saturn helped us get beyond fear; in 2019 Saturn taught us through some sort of “planned group behavior.” 2020 taught us to deal with a “cosmic visitation” which has “galvanized us into action” to “escape from adverse conditions.” In 2020 Nature challenged us to listen, look, and learn that we are not separate from Her, and evaluate what parts of our Self-disciplines and duties work and which ones don’t.

One of Saturn’s divine qualities is understanding as a prelude to wisdom. With Jupiter leading the way into Aquarius where Saturn is following, Saturn is tracking what Jupiter opens. As Saturn traverses the span where Jupiter has danced, it will crystallize its understanding of what that span of experience is about, and how we can use it wisely if we find the right structure and discipline.

At the present time, this understanding is to be found in cultivating our “techniques of quickening our evolution” through getting clear about what to do, how to do it, and the right time to begin the work. This New Moon Solar Eclipse will be great for purifying our minds and lives of obsolete or distracting attitudes and ideas, and seeing different ways to assimilate and distribute information.

This is the first New Moon of the Jupiter in Pisces era! This opens us to a greater compassion, or “fellow-feeling,” being taught through our response to the collective unconscious as well as the collective atmosphere we’ve swimming in. Consider this a dress rehearsal for early 2022, with this Eclipse Jupiter showing us “the indestructible elements of Being” as we continue to revise and eliminate old Gemini detritus from our minds and lives.

When Jupiter was in Capricorn, we learned to use “structured humor” or “disciplined adventure” or “structured abundance” to organize what we were building for the future. Jupiter in the friendly Air of Aquarius has liberated us to be lighter and freer, and during its race through the first 30 degrees of Aquarius between late December and mid-May marked the rapid expansion of the emergent Aquarian energies set into motion for the next 20 years with the two 2020 conjunctions of Mars/Saturn and Jupiter/Saturn at 1 Aquarius.

Even though Jupiter’s conjunctions with Pluto are now past, remember they set long wave transformational energies into motion at 23 and 25 Capricorn which will be in play through 2033, so maintain your vigilance! We’ve been learning how to have a sense of humor despite the heaviness of the times, and learning to play, since taking things too seriously for too long makes life heavy. There are many ways to play, just as there are many ways to find humor.

Because of the multiple Capricorn and Aquarius cycles in motion for many years to come, we also can expect major developments to come wherever we have 23 and 25 Capricorn and 1 Aquarius in our charts. These signs indicate the ability to use the structures and disciplines of 2020 as tools to achieve the larger vision set into motion where we have 1 Aquarius. Focus on your part to play in some idealistic group work and relationships as you take a new look at the recent past these next few weeks, reshaping your understanding and expression.

So What Rules the Lunation?

This New Moon in Gemini has Mercury as its worldly ruler. Mercury is in its home sign of Gemini. This means Mercury is the ruler of the Lunation, and therefore Venus, Mars, and Uranus. As Mercury makes mostly excellent aspects, this is another indicator that the next 4 weeks will be both enjoyable and a time of ideas which revolutionize our lives as much through what is taken away as what we discover.

As for the rest of the planets, this month Saturn rules itself and Pluto, Jupiter and Neptune both rule themselves, the latter continuing as a longwave “standalone” dispositor of itself, ruling the fogs and mists of the current collective consciousness. You can find out more about dispositors in general, chains of dispositors, and mutual reception by going to dispositors and Mutual Reception at the link.

Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend

Because Saturn rules itself and Pluto and is now retrograde, it plays a large part in ruling the social and cultural cycles in our lives. It will continue to dominate the stage of Life for many months and even years to come, so if you haven’t already gotten a copy, please give yourself the timeless gift of my book, Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend. We all need to make friends with our inner Saturn if we would claim our power to fulfill our higher purpose for being alive as Spirits in the material world.

This book shows you the way to take command of your power to steer your life in a conscious way, using Saturn’s strengths and skills to be led to mastering life on our own terms. As Saturn is such a dominant energy at this time, by owning our ability to manifest the best of Saturn's virtues in our world, we take command of our destiny and become the living purpose we were born to make manifest!

It was written for both astrologers and non-astrologers, and will assist your understanding of how your life experiences assisted your Soul growth and power to turn away from unhelpful karmic cause and effect patterns. Each time you re-read any part of it you’re sure to find undiscovered gems of insight helping you throw off attitudes which frustrate your ability to live your higher Purpose on your own terms.

Is the Grand Irrationality A Factor in this New Moon?

Because this section is so long, I decided to create an article which explains what it is, how long it’s been in effect, and which zones of the zodiac have been most impacted and when. You can find all you need to know about this configuration associated with widespread irrationality and hard-edged “forks in the road of destiny” we’ve all confronted at various times by going to The Grand Irrationality.

Though the Uranus biseptile Pluto is no longer in orb, we now have Uranus back in a septile with Neptune, keeping the generic irrationality boosted in collective consciousness. These aspects indicate the very hard transformational edge in our nonrational times. This New Moon shows no 7th harmonic aspects to Uranus, Neptune, or Pluto, even though it will be activated as the Moon transits any of the 7 “hot zones,” as well as when planets move through the end of Gemini and beginning of Cancer, making 7th harmonic aspect to the outer spiritual triad.

So this month we get a break from the larger “forks in the road of Destiny” where late Capricorn and early Taurus fall in our charts. This configuration is associated with the 7-pointed “Star of Destiny” active at this hard edge in history. Because at this time Uranus and Neptune are constant factors in the configuration, it keeps nonrational energies in play for those with a planet or point in any of the 7 affected “hot zones” near 29 Capricorn-3 Aquarius, 21-25 Pisces, 12-16 Taurus, 3-7 Cancer, 25-29 Leo, 16-20 Libra, and 8-12 Sagittarius.

Neptune in Pisces and Chiron in Aries

I have offered this segment each month for years to give you a broader perspective on the collective atmosphere, and the long wave changes humanity is going through. Because this section has gotten so large over the years, I’ve decided it deserves its own article, which I’ll update as needed.

If you’re wondering about why we’re all navigating the fogs and confusions in the collective atmosphere, or why we’re healing into our Higher Self in a different way that we used to, when you’re done here please check out Neptune and Chiron in 2021 – Long Wave Collective Healing and Mentoring.

In that article I go into detail about the Chiron-Neptune conjunction in late Aquarius, and how each of those planets have been manifesting in Pisces. Now that Chiron is in Aries, we truly are mentoring and being mentored in a much different way than we were when Chiron was in Pisces! Please check out the article to know more.

In this chart, Chiron is direct at 13 Aries, its stationary retrograde degree giving us a look at “the stirring up of a new perspective” and “a new identity suddenly revealed.” Just beware of impatience as this new identity will need time to develop and ground itself in its own potency. This is the next stage of our new look at Chiron’s healing and mentoring energies in the second decan of Aries, where it will go SRX at 13 Aries this Summer. It will retrograde back to 9 Aries in December, and then move forward back into a long term residency in the second decan next year.

Neptune continues to take us deeper into Pisces, and now is beginning its long term stay in the last decan, ruled by Scorpio with an added dose of Mars. This is “the end of the end” of the 360 degree “Whole Cycle,” and so encompasses all of the ghosts and unfulfilled mysteries of this past 150 year cycle since it was last here. It also allows us to forgive much of the past and move into a deeper compassion regarding suffering humanity.

Having heard our inner voice, “taken a walk with our wisdom,” and received our promised nourishment “at the end of our day of labor,” we’ve now learned entirely new ways to “touch and be touched,” whether physically, emotionally, mentally, or spiritually. Since last Summer, we’ve all been awakened to an expanded tactile awareness, giving us more of a kinesthetic experience of learning. You can learn more about the primary and secondary methods of how we learn all we learn by going to The Seven Different Types of Learning Styles – Pt. 1 and The Seven Different Types of Learning and Teaching Styles – Pt. 2

This New Moon is the third with Neptune in its “unknown zone” between 22 and 24 Pisces, and it is now on the degree where it goes SRX in June 2021. 24 Pisces is about realizing our interdependence with our environment and other beings in the larger environment. When it goes SRX at 24, it will then retrograde back to 21 Pisces, where it goes direct in December. That makes the themes of 21 Pisces very important in the collective atmosphere all this year and next! In this chart, Neptune at 23 Pisces has a theme of seeing how we can master elements of the life force “to cooperate with our immortal reality,” which will come forth the clearer we are about the results we want.

The North Node

This is the fourteenth Lunation with the North Node in Gemini and the South Node in Sagittarius! This is pulling us to grow through our quest for knowledge and understanding which can be demonstrated by our ethical and spiritual values. The coming 4 weeks indicate the line of greatest development is related to seeing “new vistas of conscious, concrete development,” knowing we are pioneers facing the unknown. Try to discover how you can open to new views, new understanding, and a new way of communicating a clearer “vision of individuality” which opens unknown potentials. We’ve also moved from a period of growth through how information is externalized, and entered a time of new discoveries on the individual, mental, and spiritual levels of life.

Summing Up - The Big Picture

The Capricorn conjunctions of early 2020 continue to take shape, configuring with our natal planets in countless ways. Use the Capricorn structures built in 2020 to create mechanisms which release the potential of the newer Aquarian energies of the future. We’re still in the middle of Saturn square Uranus, requiring that we use the emergent Aquarius focus to release the Uranian potential, bringing positive Leo and Scorpio energies to balance the power of the squares. Because the void created by a square is both the problem and the solution, show heart, strength, nobility, courage, concentration, and the willingness to release to attract. Understanding which Leo and/or Scorpio qualities are needed in conflicts or resistant circumstances will yield good results.

This year, emergent “mutations born from Cosmos” will come forth as a result of how we envision our part within the greater group work. We’ve now begun a review which will accelerate our growth and the growth of our projects. We know who our fellow seekers are, where on the evolutionary ladder we stand, knowing the ordeal is done, messages from Spirit showing us a new day has dawned should bring us peace, comfort, and enjoyment.

We all “graduated into a new realm of Being” last May, and between then and now have all been through a metamorphosis learning to navigate in a new social or group structure. Our metamorphosis was advanced in vision and action in huge ways in late April and early May, with stage two coming in August. Our transformation is taking flight these next 6 months, so enjoy the wild ride to come!

Uranus continues to revolutionize us in our Taurus sector, and having given us ways to “think in the future” while “returning to ancient sources of being,” we now can move forward into a revolutionary new condition of life! BE the Light in the darkness, staying clear about your new dedication and commitment. As a result of last year’s Solar Eclipses, we’ve been “lowering one flag and raising a new one,” reorienting toward a more secure, playful, and fun course, as well as letting go of all which could block our happiness. This one gives us a review so we may purify our understanding.

Summing Up – The Immediate Picture

This New Moon initiates a lot of interactive specializing activity, with great good fortune in the air in at least 20 different sectors, which I’ll give you in the next part of the series. This one gives us a look back so we can get multiple angles of understanding related to information we have to integrate or refine somehow.

We have great aspects for Getting new insights about how we got here and how we have to shape our understanding and behavior to express the global wisdom already coming forth. It’s as though we all know what to do, but must take a look back and see what’s been nurturing us and what hasn’t, eliminating and purifying our mind and lives in multiple ways.

Saturn continues to prod us in a “back to the future mode,” so get your vision, take time to flesh out your plan, and begin estimating your time line to accomplish what you want. We’re in the thick of a long transfiguration process and are now beginning a time of discovering “shortcuts to success” in material, emotional, mental, and spiritual realms, accelerating the attainment of whatever individual spiritual understanding we’re seeking.

Discoveries are in the air, both in action, feeling, and understanding. Open to new experiences, new vistas, new ways of seeing things with an openness to a greater unknown potential to be embraced. The stellium in Gemini will be favorable in many indirect and roundabout ways, helping us juggle many things successfully while making good progress in whatever larger work we’re doing. Keep in mind that enlightenment is a verb, not a noun.

If 2020 was a crucial point of emergent power, this year is one of persisting in a great vision despite the friction from forces which don’t want to budge. Because the next few weeks features the tightening Saturn in Aquarius square Uranus in Taurus, those with planets between 12 and 15 Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius are the most affected, with all Aquarians having glimpsed a greater life adventure if they accepted the right discipline in 2019 and 2020.

Even though the long term conflict between the old and the new continues, take heart, get focused, and eliminate all you no longer need or which would block your happiness. Because of the intense shift to Aquarian energy these past few weeks, stay open to innovative ideas and the momentum pulling you to break away, break free, and break through whatever is blocking the flow. We approach a new cooperative era, and Saturn will “make real” in 2022 and 2023 all which Jupiter promises in 2021.

We’re on the threshold of a new sensitivity to the generic human condition, but for now must see that we are individual sparks within an infinite ocean of Light. We are not separate from any other thing, since all things are Light and therefore we are one with All.

The Gemini and Cancer emphasis leads us on a merry roundabout adventure into the future! Having taken many initiatives in past weeks, now it’s time to slow down, see the many ways any given thing can be approached and evaluated, and be willing to take a new look at the new life opening for you. Getting a new view, moving in new directions, trying out new things are all favored as we become more conscious of our interrelatedness within the spiritual field. Much can be successfully accomplished in the next few weeks, but remember that many things we’ve previously learned may have to be purified in some way by dropping extraneous considerations and shaping what’s left so it communicates something of our intention, purpose, or sense of aesthetic.

This is the beginning of the beginning of a new 200 year era. The powerful forces being released at this time may be chaotic, violent, intractable, and irrational, but there is power in our unified vision of a better future. Stay clear about what your vision is, and let go of all which prevents you from flying free with your Spiritual Brothers and Sisters into a better future. Keep the course steady despite the compressed tensions of this time, and know we’re on our way into the future together!

See you soon with part 3, which will cover Sabian Symbols, Jones patterns, element distribution, and a whole lot more!

© Copyright 2021 Robert Wilkinson - https://www.aquariuspapers.com

Reprinted on crystalwind.ca with persmission from Robert Wilkinson.