April 2023

A 25 year-old bank employee went to work on 4/10/23, in downtown Louisville, and livestreamed on Instagram his attack that left 5 dead & 8 wounded, as he opened fire on his fellow employees. Gunman Connour Sturgeon, employee of Old National Bank, was killed by police during the subsequent shootout. The shooter legally bought an AR-15 on April 4, and six days later used it in his targeted attack on bank employees. Police responded within a few minutes; they didn’t hesitate, they ran toward the gunshots; 26 year-old, officer Wilt, who had just graduated on 3/31/23, from the police academy, was shot in the head, underwent brain surgery, and is in critical condition. Officer Galloway was also wounded. (Officer Wilt’s younger brother is still in training at the police academy.)

I watched part of the briefing of city officials on 4/11/23, and heard Mayor Craig Greenberg speak on this horrific tragedy, and said that Louisville is grieving, that 40 Louisville residents have already been murdered this year by gun violence! Mayor Greenberg implored KY legislators to come together to make policy and put policies in place to help diminish gun violence in Kentucky & America. Greenberg sadly informed the audience that this murder weapon used on April 10th, will be auctioned off later, as that is current Kentucky law; the most the city can do is to remove the firing pin before the weapon goes to the auction site. He would like to see the confiscated weapons destroyed. The mayor said the KY legislature has turned Louisville into a sanctuary city for weapons; the city is threatened with breaking KY law if it even complies with federal law. Kentucky is dominated by Republicans who are fighting for more gun rights. Mayor Greenberg urged us to, “put people first! People before guns, children before guns!”

Mayor Greenberg said “We need help! We must find solutions to this unique gun epidemic, which is claiming far too many lives in America. This problem is impacting us all; many of us think that gun violence will not affect us, our friends or loved ones, but no one in our city, our state, or our country, has the luxury of thinking that any longer”. He said, “this is NOT about political parties; this is about Life and Death!” Greenberg wants to turn this grief into action, stating, “doing nothing is not a strategy!” He said that resources were coming from Washington and across the nation through Red Cross, and he urged citizens to give blood on a continual basis, to donate or volunteer your time to Red Cross. Another speaker, a police officer, said that “we could run, hide or fight for our lives” if we find ourselves in such a situation; those actions have saved some lives. Citizens depend on brave police officers to help them stay safe, to apprehend or take out shooters, and most officers rise to that occasion, but we need more action. Most officers, I’m sure, would like to see some 25 million automatic rifles, battleground weapons, taken off our streets!

Louisville is holding an interfaith vigil today, 5 pm, Wednesday, April 12, at the Mohammed Ali Center. Louisville is setting up a family assistance center to help all those affected by the shooting. Greenberg expressed deepest gratitude for the heroic efforts of First Responders, who arrived within about three minutes; they risked their lives to save others. “We need Congress to get on board with the majority of Americans” who are now demanding common-sense gun laws be enforced.

The surgeon/physician spoke at the briefing saying that he was weary! Weary of telling those in the waiting rooms that their loved ones were NOT coming home, ever! The Second Amendment has been so twisted & misconstrued to assuage & massage the male ego, the males who continually clamor for MORE GUNS FOR EVERYONE! We are killing ourselves! How many more of us must die, for your gun rights? “NO CHILD WANTS TO DIE FOR YOUR GUN RIGHTS!” I do NOT want to die for your aberrant gun fetish! The majority of Americans WANT COMMON-SENSE GUN LAWS! We need more extensive background checks and definitely need stricter gun storage laws enforced! If you are in an elected office, what are you there for, if not to protect our communities? We have a lack of action, which is fueling this continual, relentless gun violence. There are around 25 million assault rifles on our streets. When are there enough? Let’s ACT RATIONALLY to try to solve this gun violence epidemic! ********

As I was writing this yesterday, 4/11/23, another mass shooting occurred outside Stewart Funeral Home, in Washington D.C. Family members of the deceased, who had been fatally shot in March, asked for a police presence at the funeral; a police officer was standing outside as the grieving gatherers left the building. The unidentified suspect drove by, targeting & shooting 4 people; leaving 1 dead, and 3 critically wounded. Police are searching for a white Lexus IS350 seen on surveillance video; the car may have damage to the front passenger door. How pathetic, when people can’t even attend the funeral of a loved one without feeling they could be shot down! Google: Gun Violence Archive 2023.

We must come together, stand together, and DEMAND a BAN on ASSAULT WEAPONS! We MUST CARE ENOUGH FOR ALL OUR FELLOW AMERICANS, CHILDREN, WOMEN & MEN … TO STOP THIS INSANE, RELENTLESS ATTACK ON US ALL! WE CAN MAKE THIS CHANGE AS SOON AS WE ASSERT OUR COMBINED WILL THAT WE WILL NO LONGER TOLERATE THIS INSANITY IN OUR NATION! IT’S ON US ALL TO DEMAND THESE POLICY CHANGES, AND TO SPEND THE NECESSARY MONEY TO PROVIDE MENTAL HEALTH CARE FOR OUR FELLOW AMERICANS IN NEED! WE CAN DO THIS!

Trish Forsyth Voss 4/12/23

“Storm Over The Land: A Profile of the Civil War”, by Carl Sandburg is a story carved mainly from Sandburg’s four-volumes of “Abraham Lincoln: The War Years”, wherein Sandburg tells the dramatic tales of the mega-clash between the North and the South, the military leaders, the battles, the soldiers on both sides fighting for their views, their state, their property. Many Southerners wanted slavery extended into the expanding territories; the cries and actions for abolition growing ever stronger in the North. Sandburg did prodigious research for his works; this 420-page book has an eleven-page index in small print at its conclusion (copyright 1939). The story tells how the “American Union of States was nearly torn asunder through all the storms of passionate divisions of economic, racial, moral, and cultural factors underlying the political climate that came to a head early in 1861 just as Abraham Lincoln assumed the U.S. Presidency”. The war lasted four long years, ending shortly after Lincoln’s reelection, a few months into his second term.

Sandburg gives such an interesting portrait of Lincoln throughout the several years of heart-wrenching events, and quoted many of his folksy anecdotes or parables given in response to queries put to him on diverse issues. Sandburg deftly shows how Lincoln was the necessary leader for that specific time in our history, almost a ‘divine intervention’ (my words, not his). It seems to me that in the events of humankind, unseen forces place certain people to be His agency in world events to forge the necessary circumstances and situations to come to pass; in that case, to resolve the “unsolvable problem of slavery, of the inhuman property-ownership laws in the South”, the unimaginably horrid treatment of fellow human beings, the beginning “breeding stock” kidnapped from their own countries. It is my own comparison, that Lincoln, like Moses, was the chosen leader, the one put in place to handle events, the one who could listen, even if faintly hearing the calling of the Divine. Lincoln, the one, who could hold the imagination of the masses to support him through extremely divisive times, influences, and the terrible losses our nation suffered. How Lincoln was that flexible, yet resolute, tenacious glue that kept our Union in the unrelenting sphere of expectation that the Union would be preserved intact and that slavery would be abolished throughout all America forever. That was the mission Lincoln held to above all else, that the states at the end of the fight would fall back into The United States of America, and that “our unity would sustain us as a world power”, which it has.

As Moses with his attributes was placed in the household of Pharaoh to someday lead the Hebrew people out of bondage, Lincoln was placed as the leader of America to end human bondage here, and to reset the balance of power. Lincoln issued ‘The Emancipation Proclamation’ as federal law before the war ended; and the ‘articles of surrender for states’ included the unbendable demands that the “Union be preserved and slavery abolished”. Lincoln’s folksy wisdom-packed parables seemed to have a comforting effect on many around him, somewhat akin to the effect the parables of Jesus had on His followers, a softened version of Truth more palatable than strong rebukes. (The religious correlations regarding Lincoln are entirely my own perceptions upon reading this book, not Sandburg’s statements.)

When General Robert E. Lee surrendered his ragged, starving 1500 soldiers to General Ulysses S. Grant, and General Joe Johnston had surrendered his ragtag remnant to General William Tecumseh Sherman, the war was over, and many in Lincoln’s cabinet and without, especially Vice President Andrew Johnson, loudly and vehemently clamored for Jefferson Davis to be publicly hanged, and for the death of all the southern traitors who had fought against the Union. However, Lincoln’s wider view and higher understanding knew those harsh actions would make it harder to bring a divided people together to heal the nation. One of the last things he wanted to do was to make a martyr of Jefferson Davis. Instead he issued a quiet edict of banishment. Davis, who was in fact, scheming to gather more remnants of the Confederate armies was told by the military leaders beneath him, “that it was over, the fighting was done!”

Lincoln had heartfelt beginnings of a solid plan for some federal reparations and to institute an era of grand Reconstruction for the rebuilding of much that had been destroyed, plans which were not brought to full fruition after Lincoln’s assassination ended his presidency.

The Civil War saga holds important lessons for us even today in our bitterly divisive stances, battered relationships, passionately held viewpoints, in our nation’s angry voices, and multitudinous hateful actions. Even the title: “Storm Over The Land” sounds like what we’re experiencing now. Some have likened our current atmosphere to a “Cold Civil War”. Sandburg wrote at the beginning of his book, “The reasons for war are deep and tangled — and a crackpot fool or lunatic can start a war if the conditions have been prepared by time and events”; and he philosophized, “Was a great human storm now to be let loose on the land?” I pray we have learned the crucial lessons from our history; that our nation of immigrants, through great sacrifices of generations, have forged “a government of the people, by the people, for the people, that shall not perish from the earth”, as Lincoln famously stated in his 1863 Gettysburg Address. Carl Sandburg, born in Galesburg, Illinois, from immigrant parents, was a man for “The People, Yes”, but that’s another book.

This piece written by Trish Forsyth Voss, was my small synopsis & commentary on Sandburg’s book, “Storm Over The Land”, with a few quotes or paraphrased statements found therein; I edited, improving a few sentences of, my previous version that was published in the Winter 2022-2023 quarterly of Inklings & Idlings, The Newsletter of the Carl Sandburg Historic Site Association. (www.sandburg.org)

April is shaping up to be a tumultuous month, full of a many changes, emotions and weather events. Working with & listening to our inner wisdom will help us harmonize the intense energies that are invoked this month through the planetary alignments & downloads from the cosmos. “Pluto entered the air sign of Aquarius on 3/31/23, bringing in powerful spiritual influences over ideas, ideals, and beliefs, and their ability to harmonize and flow with nature and all life, and these energies continue throughout April. Pluto remains in forward, harmonious motion, and will stay in Aquarius until June 11, 2023, when it returns to Capricorn, bringing everyone down to 3-D Earth, providing powerful opportunities to adjust, build, or dissolve situations, relationships, government systems, institutions, corporations, and so on — in education, medicine, science, food, commodity distribution, and mental and emotional health and well-being — so that they actually provide the abundance available here on Earth in harmonious ways.” This retrograde into Capricorn will “give people time to adjust to the intense incoming energies affecting the electro-magnetic energy field of the planet and the physical body, stressing the nervous system and neural pathways of the brain”. The effects of these intense energies, these “ever-increasing vibrational flows through mind, body, spirit and emotions” could well lead us to begin trying alternative ways of relaxing and relieving stress. “Trusting inner guidance is the best path for finding harmonious vibrational space and staying stable regardless of what is happening in the surrounding world. Remaining connected to one’s inner truth rather than following a group or crowd is advised.”

“Pluto remains in Capricorn from 6/11/23 to 1/2/24, giving everyone the opportunity to discover ways to shift things in their own day-to-day lives to bring harmony, flow, a sense of purpose, and love to their connections, and helps us to align fully with the integrity, authenticity, and creativity of one’s soul-heart so that its manifestation with ease is possible in 3D Earth. When Pluto returns to Aquarius in 2024, all blocks, limitations, remittances, fears, and expectations of self and others will have been acknowledged, worked through, and healed, opening one to the light of truth in the spring of the Age of Aquarius.”

“April begins with Cupid in early Capricorn in opposition to Mars in early Cancer with Mars making a water trine to Saturn in Pisces and the Moon’s south node in Scorpio.” Water signs are all about emotions, so expect April to be an emotional experience for us all. “Emotional challenges dealing with flow, direction, destiny, and deep-seated fears will surface for the human kingdom, individually and collectively. There’s an overlaying ‘grand square in fixed signs’ — Pluto in early Aquarius, Vulcanus in Leo, and the Moon’s north node in Taurus and south node in Scorpio. This signals a time of old rigid structures coming undone. The stellium of planets in Aries — the Sun, Mercury, Chiron, and Jupiter — signals that the key will be unique, innovative, and live outside the previously accepted boxes. Great strides, expansions, and possibilities pour into the ethers from throughout the cosmos. Humanity is literally reinventing itself in ways that have the potential to implement harmonization without diluting everything to the lowest common denominator. Rather than everything being the dichotomy of black/white, right/wrong, or either/or, all colors of the rainbow of truth can be utilized to the fullest for the benefit of all. Uranus is in Taurus near the Taurus point of avatar, and various planets conjunct it all month, activating deep-change. April opens with Venus conjunct Uranus in Taurus, signaling that endings or new beginnings are possible in all relationships — personal, professional, political, economic — that will affect all systems and structures worldwide.”

“A full moon in mid-Libra on April 5, 2023, at 8:36 PM (PST) is overlain with the ‘fixed signs grand square’, (spoken of in the previous paragraph). This activates the power of the written and spoken word, which can invoke or dismiss assistance or resistance, and raises the potential for deep-seated fears, worries, and concerns to be spoken into existence. This full moon bodes well for positive, caring, and life-affirming outcomes for all. On April 19, 2023, the new moon eclipse in late Aries at 8:14 PM (PST), the grand square in fixed signs activated by the Sun, the Moon, and Jupiter, brings things to a head with many ‘destiny’ situations activated for cosmic harmony. Truths about the human kingdom’s past relationship with Earth, and its inequities, brings a time of reconciliation and truth. Mercury goes retrograde in Taurus from 4/21/23 until 5/15/23; all Mercury retrogrades in 2023 are in earth signs. Clear, concise communications with self, others, and all kingdoms of the cosmos will be necessary. The power of the word, spoken, sung, written or expressed has much power at this time! The last 3 weeks of April can best be used to clear clutter, debris, things fallen into disuse, as well as “habits, people, or things that will help us flow more smoothly with the vibrational shifts and changes happening throughout 2023.” We are urged to LET GO of all the things that we no longer need or use, or that no longer serve our best & highest purposes. This allows us to free-up our energies for our unique missions; we are star-seeds and have come to Earth at this time to bring light, compassion and truth for the healing of all.

“On April 29, 2023 at 6 AM (PST), a cosmic equinox is overlain by a fixed grand square — Pluto in Aquarius, Vulcanus in Leo, and the Moon’s north node in Taurus, and south node in Scorpio, acts as a great mover and shaker. With planet Cupid now in Capricorn, people may feel vibrationally aligned or called to relocate to areas where their relationships to Earth better align for them and their soul-heart destinies. The grand water trine over this adds to the emotional/feeling aspect of things with Saturn in Pisces, Kronos & Hades in Cancer, and the Moon’s south node in Scorpio. This will bring the full expression of Divine Masculine energies, (which are committed and dedicated to alignment with love and life-affirming energies and actions on Earth with honor and and respect for all) expressed through each person, whether in a male or female body, to align with and deeply feel the disappointment of Earth, asking for forgiveness and restitution in all corners of Earth.” We have collectively shifted into 4th dimensional consciousness, (with only remnants in 3D) and are continuing to shift to 5D, to bring in “the New Earth”. Prayers for GAIA & all, and positive mindful intention for healing is needed NOW! WE can ALL consciously participate in this creative endeavor, raising collective consciousness and aiding the Ascension process! Love to all.

The above information is quoted or paraphrased from: Mary Elizabeth Hoffman, “Trust Inner Guidance During Times of Instability”, magazine article, April 2023, Sedona Journal of Emergence, with added commentary by Trish Forsyth Voss.