Mars under Acrab on way to Saturn

Last night was the first clear night since Mars was a pinky width west of Acrab.  In the mostly clear Caraleigh sky (just south of Raleigh's city center) it is one of the first objects visible at sunset along with slightly fainter Saturn a few fingers east.  Antares, below and between the two planets is also fairly bright.  But Acrab, now just above Mars is pretty faint.  If skies are clear again tonight Mars should still be only a hair to the east passing under Acrab. While we see Mars passing a couple of degrees below the ecliptic, Acrab hovers just a tad above it.  So maybe tonight we'll get another chance to see the bright red planet near the fainter star above it .

Mars has been hanging around Saturn since April.  We haven't seen the planet of blind action spend so much time near the planet of integrity since April-August 1984.  That protracted meeting took place after the action hero had overtaken the elder.  This time around the adrenalin soaked actor is lingering on its way to meet the sober one.  It reminds me of the shoe shiner and his escort/guard in Things Change, at the dinner and hotel before being turned over to the 'justice system.'  The actor is moving toward a meeting with authority but there are delays and regressions along the way. 

In the end of March we saw Mars rise less than an hour before Saturn every day.  As Mars appeared to fall behind the philosophical reaper (Saturn is in Sagittarius these days) the time between their rising spread out a bit, giving us a little more time to digest the action of Mars before the consequential ringed planet appeared.

Now as Mars is finally on its way to the 25 month performance review with Saturn, in which it will also receive a new set of marching orders, we see Saturn rising closer on the heals of Mars every day.  

Saturn will also get a report from Mars, they will inspire one another, it will be a fresh start for the pair by the end of August.  Right now though, the suspense that was dormant, is building.  What will come of the deferred line up?

Mercury is passively ruling most of the planets in the solar system, including Mars and Saturn.  It is in Virgo!  Fidelity to details ruling over such a loaded meeting is hard to imagine and kind of meaningless until the meeting takes place.  But there the words are for us to return to and recall as the actual event unfolds.

And look where the Moon will be....

The 4 charts after this one show Mars rising 48min before Saturn in March and then a more leisurely 1hr29min spread in June.

Saturn Suspension

Saturn will be in the same minute of the same degree for the next 8 days.  It is stationary now, and when it moves again it will change direction from backward motion to forward.  The pivot occurs this Friday night.  Right now my housemate of many years is moving out and knowing about Saturn's movement is a strange comfort.  It has been a long time since I thought deeply of Boethius and Consolation of Philosophy.  Now it is at the front and center of my mind.

I am wondering over and over about my temper and pondering the future.  I'm worried about whether I am failing a good friend of many years.  I'm recalling our years together....

Saturn is the planet of integrity.  I was introduced to astrology over 20 years ago by a customer.  When she used the word integrity in association with Saturn I was always a bit put out.  What does that mean?  I would think to myself with a snort of irritation.

It means past, present and future are seen as one.  It means seeing how our actions affect the world around us and acknowledging those connections.  Within the 27+ year cycle of Saturn we see how life evolves and how we as individuals gradually change according to our experiences, how we are held fast in the web of time and space more certainly than the most enduring buildings designed and built by people of great genius, and ambition for humanity.

Saturn is a serious planet.  Its symbol is the cross of existence over the crescent of the soul.  The progressed Moon moves just a shade faster than transiting Saturn.  When we compare these two cycles, the development (or as they say in Spanish desarollando-unfolding.....like a gift being unwrapped or a seed rolling out its magic miracle) the development of an individual soul on Earth compared to the trials that particular soul is destined to face as Earth wheels around within the confines of Saturn's wide orbit....this is the significance of Saturn.

Then there's Jupiter.  It was rising this morning as my old friend was packing her things.  She sounded angry, but happy too, as though she is ready to be free of me and move on to other possibilities, as though she sees something good in the future for herself by taking this step.  The crescent of the soul ruling over the cross of existence is Jupiter.  Its cycle is 12 years.  We have known each other a little bit longer than that.  This moment in our lives is filled with memories and uncertainty.

But I love that when worry circles in my mind like the ghost of some rejected traveller crossing an ancient plain that stretches for hundreds of miles with scarce food or shelter, when worry scratches at the door repeatedly, I look at Saturn, in the chart, and tonight in the dark sky and feel the consolation of philosophy.

Hoping to See Mars Meet Acrab

Last night I think it was too cloudy, but Tues night Mars was only a thin index finger west of faint Acrab.  Acrab is not terribly faint, but Antares a bit lower under the ecliptic is much brighter.  i can see all three from dowtown Raleigh at first dark, as well as Saturn.  
You can see in the chart that Saturn is east of Mars-  it is also east of Acrab.

They are all on the midheaven at sunset, just face south and you can see Saturn, then faint Acrab and bright Mars.  Bright Antares is below the others.  
I haven't looked at any  astronomy sites, so I'm not sure, but i think Mars should pass a few degrees under Acrab tonight or tomorrow.

Mars went direct at the very end of June and is really picking up speed- it is up to 23 minutes a day and gaining steadily.  

I have been run ragged with emergency projects and worry but still there is something exciting about the sense of accomplishment, both in mundane affairs and friendships.  It isalso a real thrill to see Mar's movement so clearly from one night to the next because of that fixed star as a reference so near the ecliptic.

Though Mars is really moving, and Saturn is still retro, the hero will not catch up to the authoirty figure till Aug 24.  

Somehow i expect time will continue to fly as Mars keeps chugging away.  i can't see more projects in my life now, so it is hard to imagine.  i just look at that bright red light setting earlier and earlier each night and think of dying will.  can Mars go gently?   as we swing around toward the far side of the Sun from the red planet what urges will drive us on while the competitor is still, for just awhile longer, near?

After Midnight Moonrise

I'll begin with the 3 pothead brothers who were working on my old roof and inherited my sons Trailmate recliner tricycle.  I did not like them coming over the last several weeks begging Koala for money to buy pot, insisting that she treat them to beer.  She was drinking and smoking after work instead of resting, and I knew she had a lot of worries about her daughter in Mexico.  I became visibly uptight when I discovered all 3 of them on the roof with her.

The previous week she had gotten up there to repair a leak that returned in her room during the big rain.  The whole roof was rotten she said.  She was going to replace it a section at a time.   Ugh.  So we went to the building supply store and ordered a pallet of shingles, nails, and roofing paper. 

Yes, I thought, Mars is marching forward again toward its meeting with Saturn.  I swung between gratitude and worry.  Her way of working was not jiving with what I got from the supply sales people.  How long would it take for possible problems to manifest?  Would the wood be rotting before we realized there should have been new paper under those shingles instead of leaving the old?

The materials were to be delivered the day we ordered them, but they had not set a time.  She had the day off and wanted to remove shingles but waited because of the possibility of rain.  The brothers showed up and she had them doing yard work.  The oldest had cut half the Irises and the decorative vines around the mailbox and beside the front stoop 3 weeks earlier.  It took me awhile to figure it out.  The yard seemed different.  "Hmm.  America has never cut the Irises before.  I wonder what happened to the mailbox plant?  Did she not like the plant beside the stoop?" 

The next week when we were both out in the front she asked if I noticed what had been cut and gave me the back story.  The 18 year old kept begging for $10 to buy pot.  "You still haven't paid me the money I loaned you last week!"  And she put him to work with the weed eater.  From the looks of the yard he really enjoyed using that power tool.  The day after I found out what happened to all the plants, America was at work and I was home resting.  There was a soft knock on the door.  Plant Eater wondered if I could loan him $10.  We had a little conversation.  I learned his name.  I told him I would not give him money.  I told him America was a woman who had learned a lot in life and if he treated her with respect she would be a good friend.  "Ohh!  I treat him with lots of respect.  Total respect!"  All in Spanish.  I corrected him on the pronoun.  "Es ella.  No es el.  Ella es una mujer."  He knew.  They all know she is a woman. And they all refer to her with the pronoun for males.  "Yo se!  Yo se ella es mujer!  Y la trato con todo respeto!"

"Good.  I'm not giving you any money."

"Ok.  But my mom really needs it for medicine,"  he said amiably and walked off.

I learned in that conversation how old he was and why he wasn't working.  He was in the middle of a court case trying to get disability coverage from a roofing accident when he was 16.  His eye was messed up and his hand.

These were the impressions coloring my thoughts as I wondered about this roofing project and noticed lots of stomping around over my head, and voices.  There was more than one pair of feet up there.  Soon there was a soft knock on the front door.  It was the oldest brother.  Though he doesn't speak English I was beginning to realize that the two younger brothers do..  "Koala says she needs un martillo," he seemed to be telling me America wanted the hammer.  She is banging away up there yet still I'm not putting the puzzle together.  I search inside and out, but cannot find it.  I go to the back and holler up to her, "no lo encuentro!"

That's ok she says, she'll come down and find it.   And I climb the ladder to confirm what she is saying, my Spanish sucks and I'm never sure what's going on, and see the bros on the roof.  The youngest is 13.   That's when my inner pendulum reversed and built new momentum from gratitude toward worry. 

Only two hours earlier, before the arrival of the delivery guy with the long platform tracter trailer truck and the fork lift on the back to lift and deposit the pallet of shingles, I was so proud of myself.  I knew better and told myself to chill.  The Brother without English had the weed whacker again.  He was all over the yard like an energizer bracero and I felt happy for him and America, until I noticed he wasn't wearing sun glasses.  America was trimming a bush.  "Why isn't he wearing eye protection?"

"I told him to and he wouldn't listen," she said.

I hollered over the fence.  "Hey!"  He turned it down and looked up.  Happy young man.  "Que?!" 

"You do not work here without eye protection.  Absolutely not.!"

As I turned to go back inside I noticed America smiling.

I call that the pendulum swing toward self delusion.  Oh, how sure I was that things were coming under control.  He headed back to the garage and got the glasses.  It was 11am July 22.  The Moon was in the Aries dodec of Pisces but it was passing through the 6th house of service.

It was 12:00 and the Moon was in the 5th house of children when I climbed the ladder and realized the scary truth.  I felt like one of the parents in "Geek Love" whose carny offspring were taking the show to a whole new level.

"It's ok," they kept repeating as I told them they must not be on the roof.  During the exchange I was aware they were repeating the lines of the script Mexicans use with safety obsessed gringos.  "It's ok," go back to your computer.  They were not even looking at each other but I knew they were in league.  That America had already told them not to worry.  How many times did I watch my brother tell my mom he was taking out the trash and it stayed right there in the kitchen.  "I'm doing it!" he would yell in an insulted tone.  If she would only quit bugging him about it he could quit watching the show on tv and get it done.  She was such a pain.   But his patience was exemplary.

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The roof is finished thanks to America's determination.  I think once she got up there and started the job she was seized with a strong urge to get it over with, and the kids just kept pestering her for money or to buy them beer.  I took the 13 year old with me to buy Subway late that 1st afternoon and asked him about his brother.

He was born here but since his mom couldn't find a good baysitter while she worked she sent him to live with family in
Mexico.  He came  back north when he was 16, ran away from home, got a job roofing, fell off a 4 story roof and was in a coma.  Now they are waiting to resolve the court case.


When they came back the next day I texted my son and asked if they could have the old Trailmate.  It has been in a pile of bike parts in the corner of the garage for years and I wasn't sure what it would take to get it going again, but the oldest boy had asked America if they could buy it.  "Take it," he texted back, releasing it from the sooty corner of the garage.  

Thursday July 28, almost a week after America started on the roof, i was finishing up a big house at about 6:30pm when I got a call from Nurse G.  The AC was out and she needed me to have Mr. Lyrica over to spend the night.  America had been working out of town all week, so things had calmed down again and it was a wonderful little slumber party.  His wife took him out to lunch the next day with their 2 children and we all enjoyed a short visit.  We cooked a nice dinner and had a quiet meal together, just the two of us, and I took  him home to his nice cool townhouse at 8:30.

 
That Friday night I felt really relaxed.  Mixed in with all the worry about boys falling off my roof and future leaks, there were the joys of the unexpected visit with Mr. Lyrica and seeing the underaged potheads riding around on the resurrected Trailmate.  They had pulled it up to the neighborhood gas station and filled all 3 flat  tires with air.  To my amazement they all held up.  The chain kept coming off the sprocket but they quickly figured out how to finagle it back on and were all over the neighborhood.  

It is true that within 48 hours of getting the tires inflated both were flat and had been discarded.  When I asked if they wanted to wait till we could get a new tube, they waved me off, "It's ok!" and rode down the gravel driveway and over to the park.  
I hated to see the plastic rims getting chewed up but they sure looked happy flying around at ground level on that yellow contraption.  

The oldest boy did knock on the door one afternnon asking for $10.  He said the guy at the tire place up the street was going to fix it.  Nope.  No money from Donya Maria.  Once again he rode off happily on the chewed up plastic rims. 

Then, Friday night, after dropping off Mr. Lyrica i headed over to the park to get a look at Mars coming to meet Acrab.  In a month Mars will meet Saturn but first it will pass the distant star Acrab situated right along the ecliptic.  For more than a month Mars has been more than 4 fingers west of Acrab, and i wanted to see if we were down to 3 yet.  

There was a car parked over there, but i had been so worn out, or it had been so cloudy, i had not seen the sky for several nights.  i kept right on my path, oilcloth mat under my arm to spread over the damp night grass and binoculars around my neck.  my cats were circling my legs.  they always come over  to protect me.

I heard a man's voice come from the direction of the car.  "aright now."  It was friendly enough, so i felt ok.  I said a quiet "hey" back.  Next thing i know they're starting the car and backing up.  i looked down at my feet to make sure the cats were getting out of the way.   

This happens a lot.  Folks are parked over there at night trying to have a moment of privacy and MP the stargazer comes along and breaks up the party. Sometimes i wait till the car is gone before i go over there.  Well, last Friday night, it wasn't too late, or it didn't seem like it after the little nap i had taken when i got home from dropping off my friend, the guy in the car rolled down his window and started a conversation.  

Or maybe i did.  he just asked if i was ok, then said "oh!  you're lookin at the sky!" when he saw the binoculars.  and not for the first time, i took advantage of a fresh audience.  i pointed to 
Cygnus way over head and told him the story of the boy who kept diving into the river looking for his drowned friend.  the gods turned him into a swan or cygnus.  Nobody knows this i said, we're all lookin at clocks and calendars instead of the sky, but the ancients looked at the sky to tell time.  that story was to help remember that when they saw that constellation over head they were diving down to face the bottom of the galaxy. 

he got all excited.  asked about the north star and if this all had anything to do with the seasons.  so i explained about Cancer the Crab and Capricorn the goat.   "Wow!  Do you know anything about ...?" and i think he asked about the pyramids.  "ooh.  i don't know," i said.  "They are translating so many things in the last 50 years that nobody understood back when everyone thought the Greeks and the Romans knew everything."

and then he started telling the story of Horus and Osiris getting chopped up and his sister collecting the pieces and wrapping him in her dreadlocks!!  i had never heard about the dreadlocks and that being a reference to mummification.  wow.  we were both so excited.  his girlfriend never said a word.  we must have talked for at least 10 or 15 minutes.  he kept saying "you should read about that.  it will change your life."  and i wanted to say i have and it has.  but i started feeling like i was crashing their party.  but for once it was not just me telling what i had discovered.  he was just as eager.  next he was talking about how he gets in trouble and loses friends for what he's about to say.  and he talks about the bible not being written in 
Hebrew.  "it was written in Greek and it was about 
Egyptian teachings."  and i said "the gnostic gospels!"  i never thought of the new testament that way.

we were both rolling over each other with things we wanted to talk about but i was getting really embarrassed about not talking to his girlfriend.  i was trying to think how to excuse myself and the guy said "what's your name?"  Mary 
Pat.  i live over there.  and i pointed to my house.  "you don't get scared out here?" he asked.  well i do.  but im desperate to see the stars and my cats protect me.  during our conversation he had remarked about a white truck that he said kept passing by.  "Well I'm officer __ and this is officer ___"  i did not even catch their names.  "You're fuckin with me!" i said.  "now im gonna feel safe out here and do something stupid!"  he waved goodbye and drove away.

it was 1:19am when i went in and did a chart.  so i guess that conversation started around 1am.  i went back out and watched the old crescent rise.  i looked through my binoculars at so many stars.  it was a beautiful night for it, even in the heart of the city.

Monday morn America's brother came over with his truck and took 3 loads of shingles to the dump.   The brother without English helped him.   his hand was still hurting from a bad scrape he'd gotten when he punched his mom Saturday night.  
They were having some kind of party.  i had noticed the music
Saturday afternoon and wondered who was getting ready for a party.  apparently he had been drinking and she was telling him not to and he punched her and fell down and scraped the palm of his hand.  he was sullen most of Sunday sitting in the front yard hollering "Buey!" to America as she pounded away on the roof.

they don't pronounce the b.  it is 'whey' like the water left from making cottage cheese,  but more forceful.  it means bull or ox and is like "Dude!" or "ese!"  i guess it's like the Mexican cowboy version of 'ese.

when i asked about the sore spot he said something about his jefa, and his little brothers jumped in and said no "it wasn't her fault! she was telling him not to drink cause he's supposed to get a blood test tomorrow." 

Hey

Moon above Mars

Moon is only a few degrees ahead of Mars but it is way above it in tonight's clear sky.  The north node is in Virgo, 2 signs back from Scorpio where Mars is now at 24degrees.  The north node is where Moon crosses above the ecliptic.  They call it the dragon's head because the Moon appears to weave above and below the ecliptic like a snake. 

When the Moon gets to the. 3rd sign from the north node it is at its highest point above the ecliptic.  So tomorrow night, when it is near Saturn in Sagittarius it will also be high above Saturn.

The north node is on the right side of the chart near Jupiter.  They are in the middle of Virgo.  Mars is now a bit further west of MC.

FTD

I really need to go to sleep, but Mercury is flying around the far side of this Cancer Sun and I have to record this incredible night.

I got up at 10:50pm and went out to look at the sky, not expecting much since it's been so humid.  It was great
viewing, so I stayed up a lot later than I should on a work night. 

Now, I am in bed and still feel restless.  I was thinking of how big the constellation Draconis is.  It was so cool to watch it backing in an arc across the northern sky, sandwiched between Lyra and the Big Dipper.

I was reading  a National Geographic magazine recently that had photos of art objects and paintings on caves from more than 25,000 years ago.  It is so wild to think the pole star has circled Draconis at least once since those pieces of art were created.

The swath of sky that includes is so expansive it boggles my mind. 

The moment i first got a look at the sky was 10:58.  it's been a great week.  I've been getting into some serious meditations with tertiary progressions.  it jsut this second occurred to me how appropriate that is for the conjunction in 
Cancer.  tertiary progressions focus on the lunar cycle and the moon rules Cancer.

also i am working on the 2nd chapter of the yoga sutras and reading about sutra number 5 which defines egoism or I-am-ness.  a day or two ago i was wondering whether i would have gotten into Patanjali if i had known about him back in the days when i gave up on meditation.

well, that's a quick rundown of my cool Mercury lined up with Sun, earth and pluto.  maybe now i can get some sleep.

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.

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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.