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The Earth Goddess at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. (Eric Yarnell/CC)
Editor's Note: This is a column written by Shannon Gill, an evolutionary astrologer and life coach who serves as president of the Austin Astrological Society. To learn more about her work, or to schedule a personal session, you may contact her at shannonleigill.com. The column was edited by Russell von Ohlhausen.
Feeling like you're in a transition period? It could come down to the stars, according to astrologers including Austin Astrological Society President Shannon Gill.
For those not well-versed in the world of the Zodiac, the study of astrology is one of humanity's oldest collective endeavors, going back thousands of years. The 12 constellations represented by their corresponding Zodiac signs are identified with the Sun's path along the Earth's ecliptic and can be observed throughout the year.
After the fiery, creative and playful Leo season, the Sun is now transitioning into Virgo. Here's what that will look like:
This is a time where we take the creative passion of the Lion, Leo's namesake, and offer it into service of the Earthy world. Virgo is the 'Soul Mother' archetype and is here to assist us to create 'order out of chaos'. Whew, what-a-job! This is the month to separate the wheat from the chaff, as Summer's garden of abundance comes to completion and we begin the transition into the Fall harvest season. It's a time for grounding, getting organized, and preparing for the shifting of the energies to come.
Aries (March 21- April 19)
This month may bring about relationship challenges for you, dear Arian. You may experience this as resistance or opposition from others resulting in disputes, minor or major. One of your deeper evolutionary lessons in this lifetime is collaborative compromise! Put your energy into fruitful co-creations. Practice compassionate listening, resist digging your heels into the soil, and you may surprise yourself and get what you wanted after all. The new moon September 6th may bring a moment of insecurity with moving forward with certain goals, but by September 20th's full moon, you will have managed to align your personal will with higher will.
Taurus (April 20-May 20)
Taureans, your world has been a bit more topsy-turvy than you may be comfortable with. September offers you some rays of later summer sunshine to relax into your natural state of calm and tranquility. You may, however, face a crossroads of sorts where you may need to make some quick pertinent decisions. You should have the clarity to do so with self confidence. Your greatest growth area this month is relationships; any issues that have been festering beneath the surface will tend to reveal themselves. Remember your deepest work in this life is to anchor yourself into self love, and emotional self reliance. Practice non-attachment!
Gemini (May 21-June 20)
Light-hearted Twins, you have been put to the test this year! Your principal purpose is the dissemination of knowledge; yet, this time in history will go down as the most confusing and confounding in the world of information. Remind yourself that it's ok to not know sometimes. You are mastering duality and paradox in this lifetime. The Sun supports you this month towards slow successes. It may feel like you have to work harder than usual. The September 6th new moon brings a burst of personal power towards birthing a new chapter. Even a misstep is perfect through the evolutionary lens.
Cancer (June 21-July 22)
Crabs, you may be pried out of your comfortable shell as you feel challenged by authority or the collective narrative. September's tempo and demands may feel edgy, leading to nervous irritability. Tap into your profound watery intuition where the Sun's clear Virgoan light can help you see clearly and avoid reactivity. It's a wild world out there these days, and you may feel an increased desire for intimacy and comfort to bring balance and ease the tensions and chaos, and this month brings a lovely flow of relational energetics.
Leo (July 23-August 22)
We can depend on you to be the life of the party radiant Leo, yet in September you may experience mild feelings of heaviness or pessimism, which are not native to your central nature. Accepting certain realities and taking responsibility will ease the weight and build your character in lasting ways. Remember Leos, you are here to lead with your heart! Some friendships may hit a wall, so be ready to let go if need be. You will have great Mercurial flow this month, increasing your capacity to communicate with clarity and to navigate the terrain consciously.
Virgo (August 23-September 22)
Happy Re-Birth Day soulful Virgos! This is your month to be celebrated in all the ways you serve the world. There is a pile up of planets in your sign, giving you a cosmic outpouring of creative vision and the ability to bring it into fruition. There are moments throughout the month you may find yourself in Neptune's fogginess. Through the axiom, "as above, so below", you will find your way! Make sure to shine, and your projects, associations, and creative actions will connect you to your karmic destiny. Don't dream small—plan big and get ready for your next trip around the Sun!
Libra (September 23-October 22)
This month, you too will get a boost from many planets passing through your sign, enhancing your magnetism and creativity. Let flow the elan vital, to breathe life into your Airy aspirations! September also brings with it a sprinkling of good luck fairy dust (which Libras love); it could be just what you need to incite a partner, new or old! Partnership is a focal point of your evolution. September may require a period of shadow work but the transformation will be well worth it in the end.
Scorpio (October 23-November 21)
The Sun shines upon you, little creature of the night, with rays of enthusiasm and buoyancy. Come out from under that rock and launch a creative endeavor. You may have an "ah-ha" life altering moment or flash of genius insight into your future which steers you onto a new course. Wrap yourself in feel-good vibes and cultivate some tactile intimacy. Around the 15th you could dig up something potentially upsetting as you go a little deeper. Overall you should enjoy a softer side to yourself, and an increased in compassion for the current state of our world, which is much needed!
Sagittarius (November 22-December 21)
Sagittarians, this month may test your capacity to expand your mind. Knowing this, your invitation is to loosen up on your belief systems a bit, peer behind the curtain of someone else's experience, and adjust your own level of reality. There is a war on beliefs currently brewing in our world, and you are here to help us move beyond the consensus mindset. This is a great month to accomplish your intentions and you will have the perseverance to see things through. And finally,love and money feature highly and should flow forth in abundance, if you keep your mind right!
Capricorn (December 22-January 19)
Industrious Capricorn, you should feel accomplished, as the Earth-sign Sun gives its support to your hard work. However, you may be challenged by other people not meeting your expectations. It's not easy for you Caps, but remember "to live and let live"—not everyone has the same work ethic as you. Practicing restraint in your dealings with others will avoid conflict and potentially create creative alliances forwarding the projects dear to your heart. The New Moon is prime time to ground your next project, yet you still have to stop, smell the roses, and make time for your own self care.
Aquarius (January 20-February 18)
You radical ambassadors of the New Age, it's time to lay a little real groundwork from the mental energy you've used in conceptualizing a future. You may feel torn this month however, itching to break free from restrictions, charged with revolt or ready to run. Remember though, it is our deep interconnected root system of real souls which enables us to fly so high. Expansion and opportunities are abundant all year for you. Doors will open to new timelines where needed. Stay connected to your heart to bring balance to that futuristic mind of yours! This is your year to bring your dreams into reality!
Pisces (February 20-March 20)
Polar Pisces, you do know that you are the opposite sign of this transit in Virgo, right? You may feel a little bit confronted with the Sun counterposing each of you throughout the month. Showing up fully (with boundaries intact), rather than hiding, is your best option. Be ready to face some of your flaws with grace. You Fishies have to balance the being and the doing whilenot letting the details merely flow by you. A retreat into nature may be needed to rebalance your nervous system. Stay connected to the natural flow of elements. You are of the most empathic of all the signs, so remember to keep your waters clear to channel your purest insights.
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(U.S. Marshals)
The Austin woman suspected of killing star cyclist visiting from out of town, Moriah "Mo" Wilson, has now been captured after evading arrest for more than a month.
Kaitlin Marie Armstrong, an Austin yoga instructor, is believed by officials to be the killer of Wilson, who was found with gunshot wounds in a friend's house on May 11. The murder is being investigated as a crime of passion after Wilson met up with Armstrong's ex-boyfriend.
According to the U.S. Marshals, Armstrong was located at a hostel on Santa Teresa Beach in Provincia de Puntarenas, Costa Rica. Officials said she may have been using her sister's name after fleeing Austin on May 14, the day after police questioned her. She was last identified at Newark Liberty International Airport on May 18.
Federal authorities say they plan on returning Armstrong to the U.S., where she'll face charges of murder and unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.
Here's a timeline of events since the night of Wilson's murder.
- The night of her death, Wilson met with Armstrong’s ex-boyfriend Colin Strickland, a fellow pro cyclist. According to an affidavit, the pair went swimming, then to dinner, before he dropped Wilson off at her friend's home where she was staying in East Austin at around 8:30 p.m.
- While Wilson and Stickland had previously had a romantic relationship, Stickland said the two were friends. The affidavit says Strickland lied to Armstrong about his whereabouts that evening.
- Video footage shows Armstrong’s Jeep pulled up nearby the home within a minute of Wilson arriving home.
- At around 10 p.m., Wilson's friend called Austin police after finding her in a pool of blood. Wilson had been staying with the friend ahead of the upcoming bike race in nearby Hico, Texas.
- Armstrong was brought in for questioning the day after the murder and released after appearing “very still and guarded” when confronted with video evidence.
- The Lone Star Fugitive Task Force said her black Jeep Cherokee was sold to a South Austin CarMax dealership on May 13 for $12,200.
- She leaves from the Austin airport on May 14.
- Shell casings found on the scene matched a gun belonging to Armstrong.
- Austin police obtained an arrest warrant for Armstrong on May 17.
- She took a flight from Newark Liberty International Airport to San Jose, Costa Rica on May 18 using a fraudulent passport, according to the Marshals.
- On May 25, another warrant was obtained for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.
- On June 29, she was captured by the U.S. Marshals
As the EPA faces limits on greenhouse gas regulations, Texas researchers work on carbon capture tech
UT is developing technology targeted at power, steel, cement and other industrial plants to lower emissions. (UT Austin)
On Thursday, the Supreme Court limited the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority in regulating greenhouse gases, a move that comes at a time when experts have warned about the need to take action on climate change.
The ruling was brought after a challenge to a lower court opinion brought by Texas and more than a dozen other states.
Vaibhav Bahadur, an associate professor in the Cockrell School of Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin called the SCOTUS decision significant, noting that Texas is the biggest energy producer in the U.S., and produces more energy than the United Kingdom.
“Power generation accounts for a significant fraction of U.S. carbon emissions, and the EPA loses its ability to control what's happening in about half of that sector,” Bahadur said. “And it's not just the U.S., I think people and environmentalists on pretty much anywhere on the planet will be disappointed because this is going in the wrong direction. We know we want to be decarbonizing, and this is essentially putting a roadblock on progress toward decarbonization.”
So, we’re going to need some insurance, Bahadur says. He’s carrying out work that’ll act as such through his research on carbon capture and sequestration (CCS), the process of sucking carbon from the air and burying it.
For the past five years, he’s been working on a novel approach to storing carbon. It involves supercharging the formation of carbon dioxide-based crystal structures and storing billions of tons of carbon under the ocean floor.
“If all of this is successful, then we will have another option for safely and responsibly storing carbon at the bottom of the seabed for essentially eternity,” Bahadur said.
Still, Bahadur talked about a different approach to responsibly cutting down emissions in the next decade, and doing so in a meaningful and substantial way, then the environment will eventually heal itself and we might not need CCS.
But that’s not the path we’re headed down.
“We're already starting to see temperature records being shattered this year, and we're still to hit peak summer,” Bahadur said. “All of this just makes me think that we need CCS to a larger extent, and possibly sooner than what a lot of scientists anticipate, especially if we can't keep our emissions in check.”
Gary Rochelle, a professor in the department of chemical engineering at UT, thinks CCS was ready to be deployed in 2010 and those 12 years have made a difference.
“But now we've emitted all that CO2,” Rochelle said. “And unfortunately, unlike other pollutants, when you emit CO2, it's there. It's not going away.”
Gary Rochelle and Vaibhav Bahadur are both researching technology to address carbon emissions. (UT)
Still, the delay is good in that now researchers like him have had time to learn about and improve the technology, allowing for fewer problems once it's deployed.
In December, UT announced a licensing agreement with advanced technology company Honeywell. The technology from that is targeted at power, steel, cement and other industrial plants to lower emissions.
Rochelle has been working on the technology since 2000 as part of an international collaborative effort. When he talked to Austonia on Thursday, he had just had calls with collaborators in Germany and Norway. Currently, he’s working with some Ph.D. students on addressing a chemical reaction that can happen with the technology known as oxidation that could lead to ammonia emissions and cause problems for a large-scale commercial unit.
Rochelle says he’s driven to this work because he wants to make a contribution.
“We're trying to develop this technology so that we can make a difference,” Rochelle said. “It's a nice problem to work on. The students are motivated and those are the primary things which drive us.”
Meanwhile, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott celebrated the high court’s decision which acted as a blow to President Joe Biden’s plan to reduce emissions.
“Today’s landmark victory against an out-of-control administration is also a big win for Americans who worry about skyrocketing energy costs due to expensive federal regulations that threaten our energy industry,” Abbott said. “President Biden cannot keep attacking the energy industry and the hardworking men and women who power our nation.”
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