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Today the Moon in Taurus makes a sextile to Mercury in Cancer. Listen to the messages coming through your own body. Practice naming, articulating, and expressing your own corporeal experience. The Sun in Cancer opposes Jupiter retrograde in Capricorn. The Sun describes perception and understanding, and Jupiter describes expansion and growth. But the opposition can be confrontational, a demand to find balance between what can feel like opposite extremes. The challenge today may be to enlarge your point of view in order to hold and accommodate experiences other than your own, developing a more expansive and inclusive perspective, which may require us to move beyond our own familiar limits. Alexis Pauline Gumbs writes in M Archive: After the End of the World, “she wouldn’t tell us anything until we stopped knowing. stopped thinking that we knew, which came at the long edge of a lot of time spent acting like we knew. and then pretending to know what we didn’t know. and then pretending not to know that we didn’t know. she waited. she saw through all of it.” In order to hold a more expansive view of the world, we must first accept and affirm the limits of our knowledge, all that we do not yet know. Finally, the Moon makes a conjunction to Uranus in Taurus, which can be unsettling physically and emotionally, but in the sign of its exaltation, the Moon has particular access to stability and grounding. In the midst of upheaval, bring attention back to your body, supported by the earth. Breathe deeply. Remember that however shaken you may feel, you are already being held. 
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Today the Moon in Aries moves through superior squares from Pluto and Saturn, both retrograde in Capricorn, before ingressing into Taurus, the sign of its exaltation. Pluto can describe misuses and abuses of power, and Saturn can describe authoritative limitations and punitive constraints. We are in a challenging moment of pushing through operations of power and existing systems in order to imagine more sustainable communities. As Janaé E. Bonsu writes in Beyond Survival: Strategies and Stories From the Transformative Justice Movement, “Many of us have never seen what it looks like to be truly free, but a common thread in our dreams of collective freedom is a world full of self-sustaining communities that do not rely on systems that perpetually harm us—police, jails, and prisons—to keep us safe or to hold each other accountable … Conflict resolution and community accountability through a Black Queer Feminist lens is sensitive to avoid replicating punitive and carceral logics, which are inherently racist, classist, homophobic, transphobic, and misogynist. Community accountability emphasizes the belief in people’s ability to transform and grow and does not deem people disposable.” As the Moon moves from these hard aspects with Pluto and Saturn and into its own exaltation, we may feel some sense of what a different kind of world could be—a world in which people are supported in growing, in which people are not disposable. As we do so, we must center the voices of Black queer feminists, who have been moving us toward liberation for decades, for centuries, perhaps from the beginning.  Today Mercury stations direct in Cancer after having been retrograde since June 18. It will take a couple of weeks for Mercury to clear the shadow of the retrograde, but today we begin the process of integrating what we have learned from this period as we move forward. The Sun in Cancer forms a trine with Neptune retrograde in Pisces. The Sun brings illumination and clarity, while boundless Neptune describes that which defies or exceeds logical taxonomies of categorization. With Neptune moving retrograde, what becomes clear today may be the ways in which we have obscured that which is true through misapprehending how much more there was than could be known within our available frameworks. Kimberlé Crenshaw, who introduced the framework of intersectionality due to the inability of available frameworks to account for discrimination against Black women, offers, “… when facts do not fit with the available frames, people have a difficult time incorporating new facts into their way of thinking about a problem.” As the Sun potentially illuminates our past misunderstandings, the opportunity is to imagine new ways of perceiving and thinking that bring what is true into clearer focus. The old categories may no longer work; it’s possible that they never did. The Moon in Aries moves through a square with the Sun, entering the waning quarter phase of this lunation cycle. Knowing what we now know, what must be surrendered or abandoned? Where is it time to let go? Finally, the Moon makes a square to Jupiter in Capricorn. Although Jupiter is retrograde and fallen in Capricorn—and although the square can describe challenges—this is a condition of bonification, with Jupiter overcoming the Moon. Support may come from places we considered ineffectual. Affirmation may come in the form of being pushed to grow in ways that could be uncomfortable but also necessary.  Today the Moon ingresses into Aries, igniting drive and direction after several days of wading through the tides of our feelings. The Moon makes a square to Mercury retrograde in Cancer. The square can be a frustrating aspect, and as Mercury begins to station direct, the frustration may stem from a desire to take action when we do not yet fully understand the information with which we have been presented. So many of us are being tasked with making choices and setting plans into motion when the circumstances remain deeply uncertain and everything we need to know in order to act has not been revealed. As the Moon makes a conjunction with its ruler Mars, the call for decisiveness is sharp and direct. Be clear regarding what guides your actions. When the circumstances are uncertain, what does it mean for you to act in alignment with your own integrity? In “Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power,” Audre Lorde writes, “But when we begin to live from within outward, in touch with the power of the erotic within ourselves, and allowing that power to inform and illuminate our actions upon the world around us, then we begin to be responsible for ourselves in the deepest sense.” When charged with the responsibility to take action, will you do so in alignment with your deepest sense of inner satisfaction? Finally, the Moon in Aries makes a sextile with Venus in Gemini, suggesting that supportive connections are available if you are bold enough to initiate them.  Today the Moon in Pisces makes a trine to the Sun in Cancer, bringing illumination and understanding to the currents of our own feelings and the ways in which we respond to the feelings of others. Then the Moon makes a conjunction with Neptune retrograde in Pisces. This can describe overwhelming sensitivity, perhaps being caught in the undertow of memories or projections, perhaps your own, your ancestors’, or from origins unknown. Neptune can obliterate boundaries, and retrograde, this could pull us into histories of feeling, dissolving present and past, who we are now and who we have been. The Moon then moves through sextiles to Jupiter, Pluto, and Saturn—all retrograde in Capricorn. There are sources of power and possibility available to us if we are willing to reach back into times and places we thought we had left behind, our personal and collective histories that still require healing. Doing the work of healing in the present is also healing that which came before. As Alexis Pauline Gumbs offered on How to Survive the End of the World Podcast, “I believe that the fact that my ancestors have suffered and that people have been suffering due to systems of oppression for multiple generations, it doesn’t just mean that I have to repeat those experiences—although there is repetition, and there are patterns in the way that that manifests and has manifested in my life. But it also means that when I heal around those things—and when we heal around those things—it reverberates in both directions. I think we often think about the fact that what we do is going to make it better for the future, and yes. And: it also reverberates the other way.” As we do the work of healing across generations, we insist that these patterns of harm stop here. After the deep dissolution of Neptune, Saturn returns us to our edges, lending structure and containment to all that the day has uncovered.  Today the Moon in Pisces makes a trine to Mercury retrograde in Cancer. We may not yet know what to say or how to say it, but this aspect invites us to feel more deeply and fully, to review what we have felt that has not yet been articulated. Then the Moon makes a square to Venus in Gemini, a condition of bonification in Hellenistic astrology but also sometimes a challenging aspect. With both in mutable signs, we may feel challenged to change how we feel as we relate to others, pushing through feelings of discomfort or resistance in order to experience the rewards of pursuing another way of being with one another and ourselves. This could involve unlearning patterns of feeling and relating that we reproduce through our behaviors. In Pleasure Activism, adrienne maree brown writes, “… if we aren’t both careful and creative, we can get stuck in fantasies that don’t mature and politicize with us. We can get caught in fantasies that perpetuate things so counter to our beliefs and values that we feel ashamed of what we want, even as we find ways to get it.” She invites us to ask, “What do you want to be turned on by? Can you even imagine it? Try. Again. Again. Keep trying until you feel something.” It takes courage to imagine that we can feel differently, but when we push through what might feel challenging, we become more available to ourselves and others. Finally, the Moon makes a sextile to Uranus in Taurus, reminding us that opportunities that we could not have predicted become available to us when we dare to deviate from our established patterns, including the habitual behaviors that condition our capacities to feel.  Today Mercury retrograde in Cancer squares Mars in Aries. Conflict may arise and confrontation may be necessary, particularly if actions being taken compromise your sense of safety or well-being. In Hellenistic astrology, this is a condition of maltreatment, with Mars overcoming Mercury. With Mercury already retrograde, we may feel impaired in our ability to speak up and advocate for our own needs or the needs of those who are most vulnerable. But as Audre Lorde writes in “The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action,” “We can learn to work and speak when we are afraid in the same way we have learned to work and speak when we are tired. For we have been socialized to respect fear more than our own needs for language and definition, and while we wait in silence for that final luxury of fearlessness, the weight of that silence will choke us.” Despite our fear—of retaliation, of being misunderstood—despite feeling silenced, we must learn to come to voice and speak back to our aggressors. The Moon then ingresses into Pisces with reception from Jupiter. Jupiter is not in ideal condition—retrograde and fallen in Capricorn—but will offer whatever support and resources that it can. In Pisces, these resources may move us toward deep sensitivity, abundant compassion, and affirmative responsiveness. What becomes possible if we start from a place of validating and affirming feelings—our own and one another’s?  Today the Moon in Aquarius makes a square to Uranus in Taurus. The push toward revolution is resounding in the air and throughout our bodies. But what does true revolution require? Grace Lee Boggs writes in The Next American Revolution, “… we had to ask ourselves whether there is a fundamental distinction between a rebellion and a revolution. Out of that questioning, we concluded that although a rebellion is a stage in the development of revolution, it falls far short of revolution … rebellions are important because they represent the standing up of the oppressed. Rebellions break the threads that have been holding the system together. They shake up old values so that relations between individuals and groups within society are unlikely ever to be the same again. But rebels see themselves and call on others to see them mainly as victims. They do not see themselves as responsible for reorganizing society, which is what the revolutionary social forces must do in a revolutionary period … Thus, while a rebellion usually begins with the belief on the part of the oppressed that they can change things from the way they are to the way they should be, they usually end by saying, ‘They ought to do this and they ought to do that.’ In other words, because rebellions do not go beyond protesting injustices, they increase the dependency rather than the self-determination of the oppressed.” Rebellion and protest are vital mobilizations of mass energy toward change, refuting the existing organizations of power. But as Boggs writes, revolution requires that we go beyond protesting injustices and do the even more radical work of reorganizing society—rather than deferring that power to those who sit in positions of authority. As we continue to move toward revolution, what does reorganizing society away from exploitation and domination and toward justice and liberation require in your life today?  Today the Moon makes a conjunction with Saturn retrograde in Capricorn before ingressing into Aquarius. Notice what is slowing down and drawing your attention backwards even as you find your way forwards. As the Moon makes a sextile to Mars in Aries, we can connect to our drive and determination to think in new ways and develop perspectives together that generate more possibilities. Finally, the Moon makes a trine to Venus in Gemini. This aspect supports loving dialogue and stimulating conversations that increase our capacities for understanding complexities that only become appreciable when examined from multiple points of view. There are some things we can only know together. adrienne maree brown writes in Emergent Strategy, “There is a conversation in the room that only these people at this moment can have. Find it.” With Mercury and Saturn—the rulers of Venus and the Moon—both retrograde and in aversion to their domiciles, cultivating meaningful connections might require questioning our assumptions, considering the ways in which old ways of thinking actually limit what we can perceive, and revising familiar conditioning that is no longer in alignment with the kinds of relationships we want to form.  Today the Moon in Capricorn makes a sextile to Neptune retrograde in Pisces, then conjunctions to Jupiter and Pluto—both retrograde in Capricorn. We are dreaming of different worlds, but we are also the worlds that have already been dreamt. We are someone else’s dream. Alexis Pauline Gumbs writes in Dub: Finding Ceremony, “you. basically our dreams were you. our nightmares too. can you imagine what it looked like from here? of course you don’t have to, do you. the space, the colors, at the same time the dullness. we dreamt and we thought it was us, but it was always you. and you dream and think that it’s you, but it’s always us. remember that.” With aspects to three planets moving retrograde, the pull backgrounds may be immense, a tide that cannot be resisted. But as we feel the reverberations of the past rippling through our bodies, don’t stop with recent memory, with familiar institutions, with abuses of power that are so persistent that we don’t know anything else. Keep moving back to those who dreamed of you, who longed for freedom that has not yet arrived. Keep dreaming their dreams, embody their longings, the ancestors who understood survival and freedom beyond white supremacy, beyond colonial imperialism, beyond police and prisons, beyond the policing of genders and the repression of desires. Connect to their power. The same tides of their dreams that carry us back to them will also carry us forward into worlds beyond what we know.  Today the Moon ingresses into Capricorn, the sign of its antithesis or detriment. Notice the ways in which your body feels compromised, your feelings ignored, your emotional and physical well-being buried beneath the relentless, grinding demands for productivity and achievement. Scrutinize the systems that marginalize your own embodiment. The Moon makes an opposition to Mercury retrograde in Cancer, an opportunity to review and challenge the entrenched narratives that tell us that some bodies are more worthy of care than other bodies. As the Moon makes a trine to Uranus in Taurus, we are empowered to break away from old habits and established patterns that reproduce the very systems that depend upon our complicity with ongoing exploitation and domination. Finally, just after midnight eastern, the Moon perfects its opposition to the Sun in a penumbral Lunar Eclipse. This will not be the most dramatic eclipse we experience this year, but it may describe a significant culmination or ending in the area of our charts occupied by Capricorn. With the Sun and Moon both in tight aspects to Uranus, we may come to some conclusion through disruption or upheaval, a revolutionary turn toward more authenticity, especially in the places where we feel most alienated from our bodies or our own well-being. In describing the effects of somatic practices on her work in social justice movements, adrienne maree brown writes, “I can already feel the impact in the community of having more organizers who can feel themselves, who have been practicing returning to center and moving toward longing, all of us organizing ourselves around what we long for rather than what we are against.” What if, in this time of systems collapsing, we practice feeling deeply into our bodies and organizing ourselves around the longings we find within?  There is only one major aspect today: the Moon in Sagittarius perfects a square to Neptune retrograde in Pisces. Hard aspects to Neptune can create confusion, disorientation, the disruption of clear boundaries, and overwhelming sensitivity. With both planets ruled by Jupiter retrograde and fallen in Capricorn, we may find ourselves drifting into excessive indulgence that is no longer in our best interests. Sara Ahmed writes in Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others, “If orientation is about making the strange familiar through the extension of bodies into space, then disorientation occurs when that extension fails. Or we could say that some spaces extend certain bodies and simply do not leave room for others. Now in living a queer life, the act of going home, or going back to the place I was brought up, has a certain disorienting effect … In such moments, when bodies do not extend into space, they might feel ‘out of place’ where they have been given ‘a place.’ Such feelings in turn point to other places, even ones that have yet to be inhabited.” If today you find yourself disoriented or overwhelmed by a feeling of displacement, while this may be challenging, it can also be generative. What other places are your turned toward when you find yourself out of place? If disorientation is a loss of the familiar, what new or strange possibilities now come within reach through this unfamiliar and uncertain orientation? How might you inhabit the world differently because you are no longer oriented to the world in the same way?  Today the Moon in Sagittarius makes a trine to Mars in Aries then opposes Venus in Gemini. Sagittarius is a mutable fire sign ruled by Jupiter, currently fallen and retrograde in Capricorn. We may be working to build heat and momentum toward transformation and freedom, but it could feel as if there is not yet enough support for the changes that we are seeking, or that there is delay in seeing the results we seek. The Moon’s trine to Mars in Aries can signal resources for taking charge and moving ahead coming from another part of the sky. We may find the initiative we need to assert ourselves and propel movement in new directions. But this is not without potential conflict. As we charge ahead with sharp momentum, our bonds of unity and solidarity may be stretched to their limits. We may be confronted with real disagreements and contrary perspectives within our relationships. Sara Ahmed writes in Living a Feminist Life: “Relationships can break too; we know this. Have you ever been with someone, someone whom you are trying to love, trying not to give up on, and they say something that you find unbearable? You can hear glass shatter; that point when you realize that what you had is something that cannot be reassembled … things fall apart. Perhaps then feminism is how we pick up the pieces.” Sometimes as we try to move together and create change together, we break apart. Something shatters. Something cannot be reassembled. Perhaps what matters most as we encounter these points of opposition and conflict is how we move toward repair, how we pick up the pieces and make them into another kind of bond.  Today the Moon in Scorpio makes a trine to Neptune retrograde in Pisces. The wellsprings of compassion are deep if we choose to approach ourselves and one another with receptivity and feeling. The Sun in Cancer perfects a sextile with Uranus in Taurus, inviting radically new perspectives and understanding. The Moon then moves through sextiles with Jupiter and Pluto in Capricorn before ingressing into Sagittarius. Can you feel the kind of world in which you long to live? Stoke the fires of those aspirations, but if you do so, be prepared for how such longings will transform you. The Moon makes a sextile to Saturn in Aquarius just before Saturn ingresses retrograde back into Capricorn, where it will remain until December 17. There are lessons that Saturn has been teaching us in Capricorn over the last two years, and now we have the next six months to learn these lessons without returning to old and outworn ways of being—time to listen to the past, to integrate its wisdom, while remaining committed to futures we cannot yet predict. Alexis Pauline Gumbs writes in Dub: Finding Ceremony, “it wasn’t so much that she could predict the future. it was more that she could breathe into the past. open her body to the forgotten. relive it other ways. she could do it any day as if no one had ever died. or since dead as if no one had been lost. or since lost as if the lessons lasted like love or what would have been love, if someone had been waiting with an impossibly open heart. if someone had been still enough to sense it anyway. yes. sense. so she made that her work.” This is our work: to be still enough, to sense with an impossibly open heart, to breathe with the past in order to relive it in other ways.  Today is the second conjunction between Jupiter and Pluto in Capricorn—both currently moving retrograde. The first conjunction was April 5, and the final conjunction will be November 12. We’re midway through this story, and it is a story that asks us what forms of power we are willing to affirm. Audre Lorde writes in “Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power,” “For once we begin to feel deeply all the aspects of our lives, we begin to demand from ourselves and from our life-pursuits that they feel in accordance with that joy which we know ourselves to be capable of. Our erotic knowledge empowers us, becomes a lens through which we scrutinize all aspects of our existence, forcing us to evaluate those aspects honestly in terms of their relative meaning within our lives. And this is a grave responsibility, projected from within each of us, not to settle for the convenient, the shoddy, the conventionally expected, nor the merely safe.” At this time during which there are so many powerful institutions and systems to oppose and dismantle—those established convenient conventions that promise safety they cannot deliver—may we also connect to the depths of feeling within ourselves in order to know the forms of power to which we say YES. As the Moon in Scorpio opposes Uranus in Taurus, something deep within may be disrupted or unsettled. Mercury retrograde in Cancer makes a sextile to Uranus in Taurus, and we may find words bubbling up from our inner depths to describe the processes that are unfolding within. Finally, Mercury makes a conjunction with the Sun in Cancer, a condition called cazimi, in which we may encounter the bright light of clarity blazing through the eddies of feelings that we do not yet know how to name.  Today the Moon in Libra moves through squares to Pluto and Jupiter in Capricorn—both retrograde and applying to their conjunction with one another. We may be feeling in our bodies the resurgent challenge to affirm new forms of organizing power in the wake of those systems we are rejecting. The Moon then ingresses into Scorpio, the sign of its fall, without reception from Mars in Aries. We may feel heavy, dragged down by the weight of our feelings, especially those deep and vulnerable places inside of ourselves that may have been neglected in our push to hold the weight of the world. We cannot move toward justice in the world while neglecting the harm we hold within ourselves. As Cara Page and Susan Raffo write, “There is nothing we talk about in movement building work that is only an ‘issue.’ These are things we have experienced. Our bodies, our communities, our memories carry all of the times when we experience or witness violence, systemic oppression or displacement, oppression, disrespect, and marginalization … Everything we want to change in the world around us also exists right here in our bodies.” As the Moon comes into a square with Saturn retrograde in Aquarius, we may be stopped in our tracks as the emotional depths living within our bodies demand healing and care in concert with our ongoing pursuit of justice for the collective.  Today the Moon in Libra makes a trine to Venus—its ruler, now moving direct—in Gemini. While still retracing its retrograde shadow, Venus is beginning the process of integrating the lessons of the last five weeks. We are learning that in order to live well—to make life more livable for more people—we must confront our fears love and responsibility to one another. bell hooks writes in All About Love, “Fear of radical changes leads many citizens of our nation to betray their minds and hearts. Yet we are all subjected to radical changes every day. We face them by moving through fear … Society’s collective fear of love must be faced if we are to lay claim to an ethic that can inspire us and give us the courage to make necessary changes.” At the scale of both personal relationships and social movements, how are you moving through the fear of love in order to make necessary changes? The Moon then makes a square to the Sun in Cancer, entering the waxing quarter phase, a time of pushing through challenges and insisting on a new way of being in the world. Mars—newly ingressed into Aries—makes a sextile to Saturn retrograde in Aquarius, inspiring determination and focusing our resources on moving beyond the parts of ourselves and our world that say: no, that is not possible. Finally, the Moon in Libra makes a square to Mercury retrograde in Cancer, and we may encounter friction or difficulties due to reluctance to communicate or express what would actually bring us closer together.  Today is a busy day in the skies. The Moon in Virgo moves through oppositions to Neptune and Mars in Pisces and trines to Pluto and Jupiter in Capricorn before ingressing into Libra. We may find ourselves in conflict between our dreams and aspirations and the material realities and resources that are available to us. We may be dreaming of a better world, but uncertain as to the actions we need to take in order to bring that world into being. As we dream into the future, remember that we carry power and wisdom from throughout long histories of struggle. As Tricia Hersey offers on For the Wild podcast, “We need to understand that there is spiritual work that has been done for us behind the scenes that can help move movement work forward, that isn’t going to be us killing ourselves and working eighty-hour weeks and re-continuing to traumatize each other by copying white supremacist work culture … There is work that has been done already for us behind the scenes that we can tap into.” As the Moon moves into Libra—with reception from Venus in Gemini—we turn toward cooperation and collaboration, moving with others in ways that take care of everybody’s needs. The Moon moves through a trine with Saturn retrograde in Aquarius, reminding us to slow down and review, because the work of justice unfolds across generations. Finally, Mars ingresses into its domicile Aries, where it will remain until January 6, 2021. Mars’ time in Aries is a major part of the story of 2020, activating the parts of our charts occupied by Aries, and equipping us with the resources we need in order to sustain ongoing struggle.  Today the Moon in Virgo makes a trine to Uranus in Taurus, then a sextile to Mercury retrograde in Cancer. Virgo cultivates the most effective use of the materials we have available—within and beyond the body—and Uranus demands revolution and radical change. What will it take to change our relationships to what we have called resources—our bodies and the earth? Alexis Pauline Gumbs writes in M Archive: After the End of the World, “then they learned to work with the soil they had. the daily dirt under their fingernails, the collected decomposition of their skin. they would grow what they needed from that. sometimes they remembered how many times caterpillars grow whole encasements of skin and shed them again and again before growing the skin that would become chrysalis. but nowadays they were focusing on a much smaller scale of organism. the bacteria swimming across the parched oceans of their eyes. the tiny cities in their intestine. the whole surface of their skins populated and evolving. this was the last step. they finally had to understand themselves as planets.” What will it take for us to value all that we are and all that we hold, our relationship to life and livability at every scale? The Moon then makes a sextile to Mercury in Cancer. In mutual reception with one another, with Mercury moving back along its retrograde cycle, we go looking for the words to describe new or old ways of being with the planet as well as ourselves. What does it mean to care for ourselves as planets as we review all that we have done and enter the days ahead?  Today Venus stations direct after over a month of moving retrograde, but Venus will not clear the shadow of the retrograde until July 29. And during that time, Venus’ ruler Mercury will still be retrograde until July 12, clearing its own shadow on July 26. This is to say that while we will begin to integrate the lessons of this Venus retrograde cycle, full actionable understanding of what we have learned may not be available until the last week of July. Today the Moon ingresses into Virgo, in mutual reception with Mercury in Cancer. What material changes have we been describing and demanding? What are the practical implications of the questions we have we been asking? As brontë velez states on For the Wild podcast, “I’m also interested in rooting English. It is an uprooted, colonial language. We don’t know where it comes from. So, we’re speaking things and we don’t know what spells that we’re casting. We don’t know the history of what we’re saying … what we start to say becomes true. When we start to change our language, it changes us.” What are the effects that are generated by our words? What spells are we casting when we allow colonial language to pass through our bodies? How can we create change through changing our language? The Moon makes a sextile to the Sun in Cancer, providing fresh illumination and inspiration for the work ahead. And finally, the Moon makes a square to Venus in Gemini; we may begin to feel in our bodies what will need to transform as we truly integrate the lessons of the last five weeks.  |
AuthorMichael J. Morris is a witch, an artist, a writer, and a teacher. Categories
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