Farewell to Mars

This Tues (June 30) Mars turns direct.  We say goodbye to the planet of will.  Earth, on the inside track, moves on toward the far side of the Sun from slightly slower Mars.

This does not mean we can forget about troubles and strife associated with combating wills.  Remember that both the dramatic fall of Egypt 's longstanding dictator and the Boston Marathon bombing  took place when Earth was across the solar system from Mars and saw the Sun lining up with the position of the warrior.  It is wise to keep in mind that sometimes what looks like the beginning of a new cycle in the chart is actually Earth lining up with the Sun on the far side of an outer planet, bringing to fruition a seed that germinated many months previously when they had been intimate.

Further down is a link to the 2016 year page of the Cafe Astrology ephemeris.  Click on the link and scroll down to April 18 to see where Mars went retro.  They use a tiny little red 'r' to mark where a planet turns retro.  If you see the numbers for Mars' position decreasing instead of increasing after the 'r' you'll know you've found the place.

It  was right near Acrab in the night sky in April.  The ephemeris doesn't show that.  You have to look it up in a star atlas or go out and look south (unless you're in the southern hemisphere in which case you probably already know you look north to see the ecliptic).

If you go out at night now you can see that the brilliant little ember (Mars) has retreated to a position well west of Acrab.  After Tues night you can watch it advance through July and August to a second meeting with Acrab.  This time Mars will pass the star and keep on going.

I am sending readers to an ephemeris I have never used.  (I get all my computer calculations and data from astro.com, but their ephemeris only comes in pdf format.)

I googled online ephemeris and picked this one from a few that I checked out.  I have visited Cafe Astrology a few times and really like their site.

Cafe Astrology 2016 Ephemeris

So I hope people will check out the column for Mars in the April section of the ephemeris.  (Mars is the red circle with an arrow....just to the right of the blue circle with a cross which stands for Venus) Think about whether you became increasingly more intimate with a challenge until around May 21, 22 when Earth was closest to Mars.  For me that was a weekend when I realized even the toughest situation could bring real cause for celebration.  Once I had passed through all the difficulties they didn't seem as bad as when I first started facing them.

There were still many weeks to follow of learning to be patient with things I can't change.  But now that I view Mars reaching the middle of the sky a bit earlier each clear night, I think of the bond I've formed that comes from going through hard times with another person.

Mr. Lyrica and I are real friends now.  I think of the little drawing of the dog in my customer's bathroom that says "A friend is not a fellow who is taken in by sham.  A friend's someone who knows your faults and doesn't give a damn."  We've been through a lot together since April, and seen each others' faults. 

As I prepare to bid farewell to Mars until the meeting in 2018 I'm remembering how pumped up I was to tell our story when the planet of heroism was working its way into Sagittarius.  Then as it backed into Scorpio I began to realize just how complicated Mr. Lyrica's situation is.  It was like I kept bumping into these invisible walls. 

I suspect that when Mars gets back into Sagittarius my urge to talk about our friendship will grow anew.  Right now I feel like we can only muddle through our time  together and breathe a sigh of relief each time we part ways.  I no longer try to get him to talk because I'm afraid I'll get mad at what he says.  It's neat to trudge through the hard part of getting close to another person.

A last link which I hope will entice people to go out and get a look at our beautiful heavenly neighbor.  This blogger took some photos of Mars in March before it slowed down and went backwards.  Mars is the brighter and deeper red object next to Acrab.  From what I've read it sounds like Acrab is actually a group of several stars.  If you go out and look south tonight, or even for the next several weeks, you'll see that Mars slid back a long ways west of Acrab during April-June.

Link to blogger's photos of Mars in March 2016 near Acrab

Trash Globe

This is a post i began composing March 3, 2016.

My new neighbors around the corner were throwing this globe away and rejoiced when I knocked on their door and asked to adopt it.

I already am fantasizing about the OSAIP (Our Sky Astrology Interactive Planetarium)

This shot is from when I first moved the setup from my bedroom to the dining room.  Yesterday I moved it into the living room and graduated from a hand held sun to one clamped to a bookshelf.  I also added a little Polaris above the North South duct tape.

I am really excited about showing visitors how Vega (the bright star in Orpheus' Lyre) was named after a falling vulture because it is on the midheaven when we are turning down in our daily revolution....while Capella, the little she goat in Auriga, is on the MC (Latin abbreviation for midheaven) when we are climbing up from facing the underside of the galaxy.

All the constellations with myths about the under world are riddles referring to the galactic down under!   Plato was not fooling when he said the myths are actually referring to  declinations.

One of these shows the sun shining from the Sagittarius side of Earth.  The best I can tell from Stellarium and Cambridge Encyclopedia of Stars, the lamp was shining from above (Earth under Sun) Oct 7.   Cambridge Encyclopedia of Stars lists the galactic north pole as 12h51m.  i have tried to get confirmation from some online astrnomers but somehow the communication is weak.  If someone can confirm or correct this Oct 7 date of Earth being under Sun I would sure appreciate it.  i don't want to spread bad information.

It seems like this stuff should be common knowledge, but it has taken me a lot of poking around to figure it out.  In my adventures I did notice a few other curious people asking the same questions on forums, so it should not be long before the information spreads.

please excuse if this post is even more messy than usual.  I am learning to blog on my little android phone.

    *   -   *   -   *   -   *   -   *   -   *   -   *


Well, 2 months have passed and it is time to move this forgotten piece from the drafts into the big sea of
Our Sky posts.  the foto w/the little yellow blob hanging from a doorway is my facsimile of Polaris.  The one w/the red X on the globe shows where i marked Raleigh, NC and made a dotted line around the globe for the reference of local latitude.  
The last one  shows the X for Raleigh turning down from just above the galactic plane to just under.


My health is improving every day.   I am even going to yoga once or twice a week with Mr. Lyrica.  Maybe soon i can invite the public to this humble little planetarium to hang stars and explore exciting concepts in  the ancient science of naked eye sky watching.

Death

A few minutes before 1:29 this afternoon I texted Mr. Lyrica- Thanks.  It's really ok. 

I had regaled him with more details than any normal person would want about the death of my 11 year old dog in the early morning, and he repeated that he was sorry.  He's a very polite guy, but I don't think he likes morbid conversation.  That's ok.  The neighbor kids are fascinated and their moms are extremely sympathetic.  Everyone came in for a quick greeting yesterday when she was in her last hours.  She rarely moved, so when the neighbors quietly came through the front door one at a time to whisper a few words to her, and she lifted her head at the sound of their entrance, I told them she was happy to see them.

Now I am digging a burial space for her in the back yard.  The city never returned my call for dead animal pick up, so I guess her body will stay around.   My health is really good and I have the day off; it is a pleasure to prepare a place for her remains.

I chose a sunny area, where the soil is fairly loose, and soaked it with water from the hose.  The roots are the only problem- I had to use the saw to sever some of them.  Funny how water penetrates everything but cannot loosen the roots.  The strength of some organic materials is amazing; bones, roots.....

She took her last convulsive breath at 7:33am.  It was an amazing moment; dreadfully powerful and awe inspiring.  Now I understand the dramatic spasms actors make in theatrical deaths.  I knew- I was moving the towel under her face to keep the fluid coming out of her mouth from bothering her- and her whole body arched in one final convulsive jerk.  Though I had never witnessed that moment at the end of life, I recognized it immediately.  I knew she had taken her last breath and her suffering was over.

>   *   <          >   *   <          >   *   <

I waved goodbye to the neighbor children at 5:30.  They had arrived home from school as I was excavating the last few cubic inches for Una's burial.  Her corpse was stretched out beside the hole with the blanket I used to keep her warm overnight.  They had many questions, like why are her eyes open, and many stories about the deaths of animals and people, and nearly fatal accidents.

I positioned her in the grave and they suggested I cover her with the blanket.  Her body was not quite as stiff as I expected, so I could tilt her head forward a bit and lay her lower into the earth.  They took up shovels and began covering her body with the heavy damp soil..  The youngest helper is in 1st grade and the oldest is in 4th.  The 4 year old sister was licking something round. 
-what does your sister have in her mouth?
I thought it was a bottle cap I had fished from the soil.
-a magnet.
I asked the 1st grader to play with her so she would not eat garbage or magnets.
-look Maria!  I'm eating garbage, she said in Spanish.
-what did she say?
-she said she's eating garbage! 
Then I recognized the word she was saying was basura.

Next she hollered to me that she was eating Luna.  That's what many of the neighbors call Una.

-you're eating Una!  Is she good?
-si!!

-you're eating Una, you're eating Fritos, you're eating garbage!

She was delighted. 
-are you Oscar?

-how do you say garbage can, I asked the boys.

-Lata de basura!
I sang Oscar's I love Trash song and the boys shouted stuff about Cookie Monster.

The 1st grader brought dandelions and planted them near Una's head.  We all took turns with the shovels and they ran to the front yard for pink Azalea blossoms and purple Irises.

When we were finished they had brownies I made Monday with cranberries. 

I told them to make sure they took their shoes off before going inside when they got home so they wouldn't track mud in their mother's house.  One boy arrived just as we finished, but came over for brownies and the general discussion.  He is in 5th or 6th grade.  He was the last as they filed across the front yard on their way home or to some other adventure. 

-Maria.
-yes
-I'm sorry.... about Una.
-Thanks Felix.

Now all I have left is a big pile of towels.  The heaviest work was made light.

It was a moment of profound philosophical inheritance
(Mars and Saturn in Sagittarius were passing through the 8th house of death and inheritance).

It was a moment of primal perception (Mercury in Taurus) in action (exactly the moment it was crossing above the eastern horizon).

It was literally the closest moment of the day that Raleigh gets to Pluto, the planet of the misbegotten (Pluto on the midheaven aka MC).

It was the most intimate moment of all in our partnership through life and her passing (Scorpio covering the 7th house of partnership, marriage, contracts and friendship).

It was a moment when fate (12th house) packed many lessons about courage (4 planets in Aries).

Last night when I was certain she was dying I googled natural death for dogs.  I was feeling guilty about not paying to have my pet euthanized.  I have always thought I would want, if possible, to be fully conscious at the moment of my passing from this life.  I was looking for someone who felt the same way about death, who would give me support in facing Una's death without mind altering medications.  I found a sight that talked about what to expect.  That you know the dying one is close to the end when their exhaled breaths become forceful.  There was advice on when to offer water and food.  It was a big help.

This is the chart for the moment Una died.  It was a moment of great pleasure (5th house of creativity and children) in improvising (Jupiter) as a compassionate nurse (axis of Pisces opposing Virgo).  The quiet satisfaction of that moment was an inspiration that strengthened my convictions about how I would like to die.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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)

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.

From the Philosopher's Pen

I love each of my customers for a different reason.  the one i clean today is every other week.  he lives alone, keeps a very clean, comfortable, well maintained house and his door is ever open to visitors from near or far with all the good food, music and drink any one could care to enjoy.

in this house i am always alone, except for the days when my friend comes straight home from work and i am still there after 8 hours.  it is only a 5 hour house, but i take 3 hours to enjoy his space in solitude.  today i picked up my favorite book of hnis and read this from the very beginnig:

"in the preceding books i have laid down the principles of philosophy; principles not philosophical but mathematical: such, namely, as we may build our reasonings upon in philosophical inquiries.  These principles are the laws and conditions of certain motions, and powers or forces, which chiefly have respect to philosophy; but lest they should have appeared of themselves dry and barren, i have illustrated them here and there with some philosophical scholiums, giving an account of such things as are of more general nature, and which philosophy seems chiefly founded on; such as the density and the resisitance of bodies, spaces void of all bodies, and the motion of light and sounds.  it remains that, from the same principles, i now demonstrate the frame of the System of the World.

from the first paragraph of Book Three  The System of the World(in mathematical treatment)  Newton's "Principia"

actually i opened to a random page in the middle where he was describing the path and other characteristics of Halley's comet.  that got me stoked and i went to the beginning.  the part about optics is a bit more tedious with all the diagrams.

any way thanks to my customer.  he knows who he is.

The Action of the Dragon

In November the muted Moon will turn from the bottom of the valley of diminished amplitude and begin its 9 year return to maximum.  Most of us are familiar with the North and South lunar nodes as indicators of where a luni/solar eclipse can occur, but another very fascinating quality of the Moon’s motions is indicated in the signs of the lunar nodes.  The South node is always opposite the North so I will just talk about the latter. 

When the North node, also known as the dragon’s head, is in the sign Libra, as it is now, we see the Moon well below the high ecliptic in Cancer and well above it in Capricorn.  At the bottom of this post the first Stellarium screenshot shows the Moon in Cancer for this month below the ecliptic.  You can confirm that it is above the low ecliptic in Capricorn 2 weeks before or after by downloading Stellarium and clicking through the days.

When we say the dragon’s head, or North Node is in Libra we mean the Moon crosses above the ecliptic in Libra.  Wherever the dragon’s head is located tells us where the Moon crosses above the ecliptic every month.  The wild thing is that 'spot,' marked with a little squiggly thing to indicate the dragon's head in charts, inches backward around the zodiac every 18 years.  This cyclic motion that appears against the familiar forward motion of the Moon and Sun is called precession.  There’s a good meditation right there for those who are inclined to go beyond the cookbook predictive recipes.  A good place to begin might be imagining a thread in a story that always plays through all the successive events in reverse.  How does that information gathered from the past inform the way we approach oncoming events?  

Aside from measuring events against this slipping cycle, another analogy could be imagining a character’s view of a parade if they run along the street toward the marchers approaching them.  The interesting thing is that as the dragon’s head backs from Libra to Aries and the Moon crosses above the ecliptic in Virgo (11-10th sidereal hours), then Leo (9-8^th), we see it start to climb up toward the level of the ecliptic as it passes every month through the Cancer high point.  

This is another one of those concepts that is incredibly simple but very difficult to conceive in our earth bound minds.  We have become so used to using clocks to measure time that we have lost the ability to imagine ourselves on a planet with a Moon that traces a beautiful path above and below our ecliptic.  I won’t go further into this here.  I do invite you to investigate further and allow yourself the pleasure of knowing the the amazing ins and outs and ups and downs of the Moon.  

One of the best resources for understanding the Moon’s cycle is the NOAA.  They have some great drawings to help picture the motions of the Moon with Earth and how they change over time.  Understanding Tides and the Motion of the Moon