Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Frivolous House Cleaner

I am being really bad today.  I just found a voicemail from customer indicating that he might not be home before I leave.  That, in my twisted mind, means I can waste even more time than I already have.  So here I am blogging!
I got the idea while sweeping the back terrace.  That was the frivolous chore.  I was enjoying memories of when his wife was well and we kept the house clean together.  I came once a week instead of every other week in those days.  Now that they no longer entertain, and that the husband is in charge, they have cut back.
I used to sweep the little raggedy things from the trees during pollen season as a regular course of the day.  Now I rarely sweep the terrace, leaving it for the yard crew that comes every tother week or so. 
While I was doing my own little thing it occurred to me that I could be posting my thoughts right from the customer's house now that I am so comfortable posting from my phone.  When I came inside and thought maybe I should check for a message from the customer I saw that my phone was not with me. uh oh.  Did I leave it at home?
A little while later I checked my car and there it was in my coat pocket.
Now I am posting as I wait for shelves to dry. I'm cleaning bug dirt from a section of kitchen cabinets. I could be vacuuming the study until they're dry enough to put stuff back..  Should be.  The customer will come home at 4pm ready for peaceful rest and frivolous housecleaner will still be here.  The shelves are a good task that will not have to be repeated soon, but I am also going to wash 7 wine glasses that don't look like they have been used in a few years.
My favorite moment was when I walked around the front and noticed a whole bunch of camellia (or gardenia- I'll google that later) blossoms.  I picked them all up from the brick walkway and under the bushes.  As I was cleaning up these fallen blossoms in various states of decay, some still fresh, others brown all the way through, I considered how this was one of the many gardening tasks the wife quietly took care of for years.  I never saw hordes of old flowers littering the border and walkway.
The screenshot this time is from the right side of the chart, showing what is setting in the west (northern hemi view of things).  I drew an arrow to the number 6.  The 6th house is the house of service and apprenticeship.  The chart is for 12:33pm when I was getting ready to write this post.  Saturn is in the 5th house now, which is the house of play.

When i was finished picking old blossoms out of the pine straw i  broke two fresh ones from  the bush and put them in a little vase with water- another touch that has been missing.

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Saturn Takeover

The first image has a blue arrow pointing to Jupiter about to show above the horizon. AC is short for ascendent, where stuff comes up as earth turns. Next i put one of my whole birthchart so you can see the rest of the planets.

The 3rd image shows a section of my progressed chart. I'm almost 58 so the chart shows what was coming up for the same time 58 days after I was born. Progressed charts are kind of like the chapter headings for each year of life. Think of those old time chapter headings that included an extensive list of all the events that unfolded in the following narration.

You can see Saturn circled in the cut out of the progressed chart. It was down in the 3rd house of communication when I was born. Now it's in the batter's box (that's what I call 1st house sometimes) getting closer and closer to its turn at the plate.

Not everybody gets to spend a third of their life with progressed Saturn in the 1st house. Most people wouldn't want to. It is kind of solitary and serious. I like it. I don't get out like I used to when happy go lucky Jupiter was rising, but I get a lot more studying done.

I'm getting set up to talk about how this strange affair between Moustache Mary (I get a fake name too!) and Mr Lyrica is actually an inspiring story about the natural unfolding of organic time, with Saturn in the starring role.

Saturday, March 26, 2016

Service and Virgo


There are two  images at the end of this post.  The 1st shows Jupiter rising in Virgo and the 2nd shows the time etc. for the same chart.  I was cleaning blinds, looking forward to Mr. Lyrica coming to spend the day tomorrow.  i talked him into planning dinner.  i need a little surprise.  some one else deciding on the menu.  and he needs a chance to start taking up life's daily tasks.  when i asked if he wanted to plan the meal he said, "it doesn't matter."  then came another text immediately after, "you decide."  followed by a 3rd...."i can help."
he helped the last time.  now he has to go to the next level and make a plan.  he also has to quit deferring.  he is too damn polite.  but back to the blinds.
I was on the 2nd of 3 sets in the living room.  i started with the one set in the window behind the couch.  i didn't want him hanging on the couch near dusty blinds.  then i moved to the two windows facing the front of the house.  those blinds are not as dusty.

i was reflecting on the last time i had cleaned them.  i couldn't remember, but they aren't that bad. Though i have let most of the windows go for about 5 years, i manage to clean the blinds at least once a year.

dirty windows are a real drag.
It would be depressing living with such a smeary view of the outside if i didn't have my nose in a book most of the time.  Then too, the process has been slow, but i'm convinced, absolutely, that the more i rest the better my health becomes.  So looking out at the neighborhood kids playing in the street, or in the park, and seeing them through windows covered with bug splats and the funk deposited by repeated cycles of condensation, reminds me of my determination to get better by getting the rest i need.
next thing i knew i was in a reverie about customers.  that happens a lot.  my customers are my jivanmuktis, my chosen examples of liberated beings.  i thought about how one time i told a customer why i had asked to postpone a week; this was after she had graciously assented....maybe i was wiping the counters in her kitchen and we were chatting.  i explained that i was tired of coming home to a dirty house and wanted to take some time off to clean my own house.
many times i have recalled that exchange and considered how thoughtless it was on my part.  i used to recall it with shame.  but since i have had La Koala living with me and watched her struggles with money, constantly having to send, send and send again for one ememrgency after another to her family in Mexico, i know what it is like to over look the whining of someone you feel deserves respect.
La Koala has made a couple remarks about how nice it must be to work so little.  one time it really stung.  i noticed myself, days after the remark, composing phrases in my mind to defend myself.  but after a bit of thought i remembered how i had been treated when i showed the same sentiment.  i remembered the time i whined about how dirty my house was because i was too busy cleaning for customers, and how my cusomer did not bat an eye.  she over looked it.  the conversation flowed right over my pebble as if no offense had been given or taken.
so i noticed a smile this time-it just came...i was all alone, enjoying my little task and there I was smiling at a memory that once made me cringe.  this is the chart for the moment i noticed myself smiling about how i have learned something wonderful from the people i have 'served'.





Full (but maybe a bit fuzzy) view of chart for Service and Virgo essay

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Stand up Time for the Mystic Warrior

Mars is seriously slowing down, like a double semi tractor trailor testing the brakes long before the projected stopping point.  the stopping point is 8sagittarius54mins on April 17. things in heaven beat the hell out of Texas; i don't reckon a Lone Star State herd of cattle would take 3 weeks to come to a stop and reverse direction.

Mars is a good planet to watch when you want to gauge actions on Earth from among the spheres.  The outer planets are good for historic and unforgettable life events, but Mars is where we see the individual battles unfold on the field.  Mars is where we see things down and dirty.

it was at alllmost 5Pisces the minute i was born.  Now it (Mars) is at 5Sagittarius exactly 10 signs from where it was all those years ago, when i was first presented to the light.  This is about the 30th time it has made this same trip so i've gotten a bit wise to the process.    (thanks to centuries of astrologers who took the trouble to record what they knew about these cycles.)

what i've learned from astrologers is that a planet 10 signs from its starting point is in the integrity stage of growth.  it is in the step along the path of becoming where we must stand tall as grown ups and fulfill our role in the community.  the web of life is studded with these moments when we must push various aspects of our selves to reach their highest potential.  we don't really push, or climb, as much as the spinning Earth does.  but we lose our perspective among these hills and meadows and think we originated the idea of tilting this sphere, speeding it forward and leaving aethereal waves in our wake.

to stand tall for any planet, or aspect of ourselves- and this is Mars, the one of fearless action, is a lot of responsibility.  this has been the focus of my mystical warrior for the last several weeks as Mars has been trudging through the end of Scorpio and beginning of Sag.  it has been slowly working its way through the philosophical step of the mystic path seeing this step of responsibility getting closer and bigger.

there was a lot of doubt and questioning in the last few days before transiting Mars passed into the 10th house from my natal Mars.  it was like the soldier preparing to face an unknown enemy and wondering if the battle was necesary and if so why? why this battle and not another?  why this foe?

and the strangest of all is that Mars in Pisces really does not have human enemies.  anyone that dares to attack Mars in pisces will be met with little resistance or counter attack.  Mars in Pisces is the medic rushing in collecting wounded from all fronts.  it is the chaplain beside fighters trying to beat death.  death is always near wherever there is Mars, but in Pisces Mars has to take its chances and watch fate decide the outcome.

the stand up position of Mars in Pisces is Sagittarian improvisation.  the hero taking off from the monastery or convent as their place of training enters a world of guns and roses and learns to live with fate as opportunity.   Any fate, no matter how "bad" it seems, is a golden opportunity for spiritual growth.  When Mars gets to Sagittarius from that dreamy Piscean convent it is time to try out various strategies for uncovering the hidden blessings of dreadful situations.

Nurse G is having to set limits for Mr. Lyrica.  he puts on a very obedient face most of the time and cooperates when the guards are looking.  but that craving for the holy water and the magic pills is returning.  it's a sign that he's getting better, but it makes Nurse G's job a lot harder.

My job, which i created all by myself, is to introduce him to healthy pleasures and give him fascinating ideas for his reborn mind to contemplate.  yes, i get the fun job.

Two weeks ago i had him over to my house all day Saturday.  we took two walks, each lasting over an hour, which wore both of us out.  "How long have we been walking?"

"40 minutes.  but this is our 2nd walk.  we walked for an hour at about 12:30."

he stopped.  i was soo relieved!  "maybe we should turn around here."

" i can go for that.  i was ready to go with you all the way to Lake Wheeler Road.  This is much better."  and we turned back to retrace the two miles we had walked down the greenway.

"how long have we been walking?"  I keep up with the time and he calculates the mileage.  i can't remember, but he does, how long it takes to walk a mile.

in between walks we cooked.  he chopped veggies and stirred them in the hot oil.  he went through the spices and shook a little of this and a little of that into his hand and added to the stir fry.  nice memory.  we ate on the back porch.  someone must have claimed the bottle of Tapatio which i've not touched since it was given to me; because it was nowhere to be found when he asked for hot sauce.  he turned salt down and accepted instead a lonely little packet of hot sauce hidden among packets of duck sauce and hot mustard from the days when my son and i used to eat a lot of Chinese take out.

These are all familiar pleasures to him- walking and cooking.  Earlier in the day, maybe it was after the first walk, we made brownies.  he said he had made pot brownies.  i remembered eating one of them at a New Year's party more than ten years ago.  it reminded me of a really good story, but i did not tell it.

the best pleasure of all for me was when we sat at either end of the long couch with our legs stretched out.  we had to keep shifting things around to find the best arrangement.  I think he was as comfortable as i was and had enough room......i talked about where Mars was when he was born.

as i finish this it is Wed.  i spent the day practicing pronunciation of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.  i recorded them onto my digital voice recorder from his iphone this past Sun.  i went over to dry laundry on that cloudy day, hoping i might be driving up with my husband to visit our son this week.  it looks like we will not go this week.  some time soon maybe.

A lo mejor (that's how my Mexican friends say perhaps) Mr. Lyrica and i will go to my husband's this Sat and help him get email set up.  he just got connected to internet service and there seems to be some kind of problem.



Sunday, March 20, 2016

Irish Lit

My husband said, real slow, after i'd been talking about his friend once again for almost half an hour, "ya know o......it sounds like youur in love."  His pitch rose just a tad on the 'L' word.  He's not nearly as perceptive as he sounds.  i told him i felt like i was in love months ago and he's probably forgotten.

When he said that Friday night though, i jumped on it, and said i have been for months, except when we had no contact, and then i could get him out of my mind.  but now he's back and I'm in love all over again and finally getting over it.  But that was before our visit today, and the book by Twenty Major.  And I'm back to where I imagine his wife must have been when she fell in love with him.

Mr. Llyrica.  I used to hate making up fake names, but that's all in the past.

Here's the clock time for about the moment I started reading out loud from "The Order of the Phoenix."


Nurse Grumpy had left us alone for 3 hours and we passed the time awkwardly as usual.  he kept turning the tv off, turning it on, turning the sound down and then turning it on when i said i can understand the game better with the sound.  soccer.  his favorite team from London was playing Barcelona.  Arsenal has been his team since he was a boy.

i have to drag this stuff out of him.  today i asked him if it is hard to make a sentence.  he said no but acknowledged that he doesn't talk as much.

now it is Monday morn.  my little phone keeps closing the internet down.  got a call from my old bf.  mad at his cab company boss, so i get to hear about him going to see Slayer, reading "The Prose Factory" and a book about Malcolm X and Mohmmed Ali.  He is calming down slowly he says.

these are all shots of the same chart for the moment i started reading Twenty Something over at Mr. Lyrica's yesterday.  it was sweet.  he was chuckling at the funny parts.  i am not entertaining company with Saturn progressed rising, so it was a real pleasure to stumble on this comic blogger turned book writer.

i really like that Pluto was in the house of fun when it happened.




i give up.  the cursor is like that silver ball with wings and a mind of its own in quidditch.  while it is cooperating it looks like i might be going with my husband to visit our son in Vineyard Haven.  i am waiting to hear back from him.  Friday was a big day.  Thurs night camping with Al Lyrica was sweet, then talking with his wife on Friday, then the call from my husband Fri night.  my hands were shaking pretty bad Thurs.  i do what i can to calm down and avoid more thyroid frying radioactive iodine pills.  one was enuff.

here tho now is the beginning tale of how i became sweet friends with an old friend.  every week since Feb we have goten together.  nurse grumpy slipped me 50 bucks yesterday.  she was happy when she left at 2 and all business when she returned at 5.  back to work, taking care of a man with a deadly craving to escape from what we can not know.  we are determined to keep him loved and among the living for now.  11:17am Mon and off to clean for a wonderful customer and her 90 year old mom "The Pistol."  she just wants to go up on the hill.  another soul we cling to because she is too beautiful to let go.

Saturday, March 19, 2016

My Uranian Transit

it is really scary trusting my journal stuff to google.   i haven't written in my paper journal for weeks.  i sure hope this record does not get lost in the cloud.

i may be going with my husband to visit our 20 year old son in Massachussettes.  he is working on Martha's Vineyard for a company that builds and restores wooden sailboats.  in a phone call last week he told his dad we should come up to visit him and check the place out.  he has been there since this past November.  late november.  things came together for the job all of a sudden and he scrambled to get up there before it got winter awful cold.

when my husband said "us," about going up there i asked if he meant "me," as in just him.  i could not believe my son would want me up there.  but sure enough he had suggested we make the trip together.  we have been separated since my son was almost 9.  but we have made 1 day trip as a family- a few years ago, and it was very pleasant.

so i'm so excited i can't hold the tears back.  it will be a real gas to see the wonderful place our son talks about so much.  he brought a couple of local newspapers home for Christmas.  between his stories of work and island life in general it sounds like a very special place.

Uranus is now 19aries13.  my mercury is 20aries31.  a lot of stuff going on now is associated with mercury lining up with Sun near my natal Venus (28pisces).  i have been spending a lot of time with a friend recovering from a brain injury.  we have gotten together every one of the past 5 weeks.  we camped overnight at Jordan Lake Thurs night, the night before last.  i was hoping to see Opiuchus in darker skies, but cloud cover came in by 3am.  still Orion was pretty bright behind big moon light and we got the woods all to ourselves-there was not another camper in the 'primitive' New Hope Lookout section of the park.

i guess that's it for now.  just want these exciting events recorded for future reference.  The call with my husband was 7:12last night.  he called me a bit earlier and i called back as soon as i saw.  then i babbled for at least 20 minutes about my visits with our friend and the overnight campout, then came the great news.  we might be going in less than a week!

Friday, March 11, 2016

Knower and Knowable vs Same and Other

i put Venus on Far Side for the title of yesterday's post, but never explained why.  if you check the ephemeris you will see that venus was 30 behind the Sun Feb 8 and now it is less than 23 degrees behind.  That means it is circling around to the far side of the Sun from Earth.  In the chart, it won't pass the Sun till June 6/7.  When we see it passing the Sun in the chart that means it is full or lined up on the far side of the Sun with Earth.

one of my long term projects is memorizing the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.  i am on #40 of the first pada which is kind of like section or chapter.  i think they say pada means foot but i might not remember that correctly.  there are 4 padas.

this sutra #40 is one of the longer ones, about 10 words.  oops  i see it is sutra 41 not 40.  it goes like this:
 ksina (totally weakened)
vrtter (mental modifications)
     i think by mental modifications they mean something like thoughts
abhijatasyeva (naturally pure)
    i think abhija might mean without seed *

maner (crystal)
grahitr (knower)
grahana (knowable)
grahyesu (knowledge)
tatstha (similar)
tadanjanata (taking the color of)
samapatti (samadhi or balanced state)

i really don't get it but i believe i will.  what strikes me now is the similarity between this knower and knowable mediated by knowledge and the concept in Plato's Timeaus of the same the other and something that mediates the two.  i can't remember what it was.

this is an example of how Plato and Socrates seem like such spiritual guys to me.  i often see such similarities between their ideas and those outlined in the sutras.  even though they refer to Egypt (Plato and Socrates refer to Egyptian priests and their teaching a lot) i think they would agree that they learned a lot also from cultures even further east.

well i can't just dump that string of words without some explanation.  Here's the translation from the translation and commentary by Sri Swami Satchidananda:

Just as the naturally pure crystal assumes shapes and colors of objects placed near it, so the Yogi's mind, with its totallly weakened modifications, becomes clear and balanced and attains the state devoid of differentiation between knower, knowable, and knowledge.  This culmination of meditation is samadhi.

My mind is like the mouth of a rodent with teeth always growing.  it has to ahve something to chew on at all times.  these yoga sutras are the perfect diet for such an appetite.

* I had bhija mixed up with bijam.  Bijam translates as seed.

Thursday, March 10, 2016

Venus on Way to Far Side

I did't get up till first light today, 6am; so i missed finding more stars in Ophiuchus or Herculis, but i did take a new step in my viewings of Venus.

I've been watching Venus come up well south of east for the last couple weeks.  Ususally I hang around until Venus is completely invisible in the new light and look to see how much closer to east the orange ball floats up.  This morning i looked up the directions for 27Aquarius (location of Venus) and 20Pisces (location of Sun).  The Sun at 20Pisces rises only 4degrees south of east; Venus at 27Aquarius rises 15degrees south of east.  That difference of 11degrees looks dramatically bigger on the horizon.

I spent so much time viewing a virtual sky on a cramped   computer screen when i was using Stellarium.  the actual sky is so much bigger ....it is different also because you have to arch your head back, and then bend backwards to get a good look at the top of the 'vault.'  I guess the Hagia Sophia was like the Stellarium of precomputer days.  Course big community planetariums have domes too, but the horizon is still somewhat limited.

I wrote the above paragraphs before going to work this morn at 7:30.  Now i have been home for a few hours and had a little nap, taken care of the critters.  This is the first time in many months that I did not burn the devils feet and go in the clouds all day at the party house.  that makes it a very special day.

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Ophiuchus the Phantom Healer

 I managed to get up at 4 this morning and take advantage of the moonless, cloudless predawn veiwing opportunity.  I'm trying to locate the stars in Ophiuchus, the serpent bearer.  They appear along the same 2 sidereal hours as Herculis (16-18) but Ophiuchus is around the level of the equator and Herculis is further north.  Both constellations are pretty faint.

I think i did spot eta, zeta and delta Ophiuchus in a line hovering above the current trio of Saturn,  Antares and Mars; but the rest of the constellation is as hard to spot as a shy ghost.

This is no problem-Ophiuchus will be rising earlier every night throughout spring and summer so there will be plenty of opportunities to map it out as it crosses the sky right after low lying Antares in the constellation Scorpio.

Once I get Opiuchus figured out i will have surveyed the complete, yearly parade of northern constellations with an understanding of how they fit in the ancient Greek scheme of naming.  The constellations along the ecliptic are zoological specimens.  the rest refer one way or another to a location above or below the glactic plane.

Ophiuchus is the hero at the gate to the underworld; we see it when we are facing the heart of the Milky Way and turning down to the bottom.  Orion stands where we face out of the galaxy and are turning toward the upper dome.  The myths are a lot more fun to me now that i see them as a system and can appreciate the wicked sense of humor behind the names and stories.

so if you notice Orion in the western sky at sunset during the next few weeks, maybe you will think about how we are turning to face the upper dome of the Milky Way, and maybe you will think about faint Ophiuchus high in the sky just before dawn's light peeks from east, and remember that we are heading back down to the galactic under world.

I got my first surprising event for my transit of Uranus conjunct my natal Mercury.  It came yesterday at about 12:50pm.  One of my customers, well i guess two since they are a husband and wife....they are moving to a retirement community.  At about 1:20pm i inherited a looonngg wall hanging called Mitternachtssonne by Emil Schulthess.  it is a series of 24 photos of the Sun rising and setting from the Island of Hekkingen, Norway about 70 degrees North latitude (within the arctic circle).

The lineup won't hit closest peak till April so there should be more surprises to come.  I am really enjoying my new wall hanging.  as i study it i remember back to the first time i cleaned their house many years ago.  they had a lot of interesting pieces of art that made me think i would enjoy working for them.  Some of the pieces were just fascinating and others were beautiful, and i have enjoyed being around them all throughout the years.  They won't be far away, but this is still a parting in the road for us.  it is wonderful to part company with people i have enjoyed coming to know over the last 20 or more years.  hopes are high for all of us as we look forward to our new paths.  well, the husband might be nervous but he's definitely signed up for this big move......hip hip huzzah for Uranus.   (at least for now)

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Once Upon a Time

Yesterday was kind of a weird day. i expected some sort of challenge, but the urge to take offense and put up a righteous defense still took me by surprise.  I drove 30 minutes to Zebulon with a friend.  we were visiting Billy Odom, an old friend from the Thursday Night Open Poetry Reading days.  He has been confined to a wheelchair for some years and was recently moved to a new rehab facility.  I was denied permission to take him for a ride in the car with us because the legal guardian did not know me.

the chart at the end of this post shows Mars today in the 5th house less than 18 degrees behind Saturn in the 6th house.  (the image looks very fuzzy on my android.  i'll check it out at the library tomorrow and see if i can fix it.)

Mars is slowing down these days.  it will stop and turn retrograde  in March.  Then we'll go back over yesterday's troubles and get a chance to review them with even more insight than what was gained under the soft gravity of the Moon lined up with the planet of heroism and will.

Now the Moon is moving toward conjunction with Saturn.  The ancients would make a story about Psyche lining up with the corrupted Hero yesterday and then advancing to line up with the philosophicFather today.  we say Saturn, the father figure of our nuclear planetary family, is philosophical because he is in the sign Sagittarius this year and next.  Any planet located in the sign Sagittarius is seen from Earth just as the earthling looking heavenward is rising to the tippity top of earth mountian in their daily revolution on the tilted sphere.

every day whether the sun is shining or we are looking away into the night, if Saturn is on the midheaven we are shooting to the top like arrows in graceful arcs.  at this time of year we are able to see Saturn climb the night time sky in the 4 hours before the Sun in Pisces comes up and washes the discerning darkness away.  that means during this month we are completing our daily ascension just as the Sun rises.

Get a tilted globe.  put your finger on the town where you live.  standing above the globe rotate that point counter clockwise alllmost to the top.  Imagine the Sun shining from the side where your point is about to go down.  imagine little you seeing its first rays of the day just over the great bulge of the sphere that carries you on its back from before birth till after death.

imagine you speak greek and philosophy is a compound word meaning love of wisdom. that the word gnosis refers to the ability to read a marker, or gnomon.

imagine you are a child without inherited notions of what astrology is.  you have nothing but curiosity about the sky above you.

last night as i was sitting in the darkness reflecting on the difficulties of the day.... i had already been out to admire Auriga high in the northern sky and Orion and Canis Major to the south. i knew by these markers inherited from before the time of Plato, that Raleigh was turning up toward the Olympian dome of the Milky Way, and that the Milky Way stretched from Auriga west of the pole star all the way across the top of the sky to Canis Major east of south; because earth's north pole points just 27 degrees above the plane of the galaxy.  i wasn't thinking about that though.  wasn't thinking about what i knew.  gnew...i had turned off the lamp and was sitting in the darkness breathing and thinking of that breath....which they called psyche....the greeks did, once upon a time.

and i heard the voices of the two neighbor boys approaching with their mother.  she was telling them i might be in bed.  i turned on the lamp, got up from the couch and went to the door. the wooden door was open.  i opened the storm door made of glass.  "pasale!"  (come in!)

"oh we thought you were asleep said my friend, in spanish.

I was meditating!

the younger boy hopped onto the couch with his legs crossed and each hand resting on its given knee "like this?!"

i gnew he would do that.  i was ready for him.

no i can't do it like you do.  i was just sitting straight with my eyes closed.

they had seen something in the sky.  "show me" i said and we ran across the street to the parking lot of the neighborhood park.  but it was gone.  some kind of line in the sky.  "maybe it was from an airplane"

i pointed to the belt of Orion "see those 3 stars?"   Yes yes they did!  that's the belt of Orion.

I remember Orion from on the compter.  said the older boy.

"and that  star is Sirius and that faint trinagle down there is the rest of......"

the older boy was following the dots and the younger one was facing east and jumping up and down and dancing around "what do you see?"

I don't remember what he called it, there were also lights from two planes.  "that one is Jupiter!"  ohh.  they love Jupiter.  i do too.  who doesn't?

let's go in and find Orion and Sirius on the star map.  yes!!  we went inside, looked at the star atlas, filled out forms for an upcoming field trip and the mom and i visited.  it was almost time to go.  the older boy pointed to Procyon hanging half way between floor and ceiling on the western wall.  "which star is that?"  and we went back outside to see the little dog just east of the big one while the younger brother played with Lego's.

today as the Moon advances from Mars to Saturn
link to better image (i hope!)
-the Warrior is slowly moving toward the meeting a soldier must have every couple of years with its high ranking officer-today as the Moon goes from the soldier to the limit setter, the philosophical general/father......i am pondering yesterday's difficult confrontations with offensive realities.  i am facing the things i can't change, because they are results of past revolutions on this tilted sphere, and also recalling signs of progress generated by that same cosmic motion.

if i remember correctly Plato called Psyche the nurse of becoming.  We associate the Moon with Psyche because it is the nurse of Earth, ensuring that water is always moving, massaging the planet gently, as it lines up with one planet after another in the solar system, keeping Earth apprised of the changing relationships.

so yesterday the Nurse of Becoming reminded us of the upcoming meeting between the evolving hero and the evolving father.  they are both in all of us.