I’m back; sort of

Its been nearly a year since my last post. Really? It’s true. The current challenge is to remember how to create a post with the publisher’s format changes. If this makes it to the web, it means it got figured out. What to write here after so many physical and mental challenges. What have I learned? Where have I been and where am I going? Strange to feel a huge fog about all of that and today looking at astrology realizing there’s an exact nodal return! Ti’s it any wonder that feeling of strangeness that haunts me? Not that my direction (if there’s to be one) is any clearer.

I thought it fitting to make a post of some type to mark the occasion. Will this be of any interest to anyone else? Probably not but will allow the fingers to keep dancing over the keyboard here anyway.

Suddenly the mind is singing part of the Sleepy Eye Joe lyric, “Where’d you come from, where’d you go?” Ha! The answer is that I don’t know. Watching the mind has been a good part of this year’s pastime. Mine wants to solve problems and if it can’t figure one to solve, it creates one. So much for my meditations these days; yet the occasions that I do ‘sit’ are more peaceful than ever in the past.

Health challenges have aided my ‘going within’; sometimes, having no choice but that. It is so often said that life is the teacher — no need to look for a guru or read a book. And honoring life as ‘the’ teacher has been part of the dynamic for the past few years. Sometimes a strict taskmaster such that it can be.

The Russian war aggression disturbs the psyche of course and there the teacher appears again. Watching the news with tears in my eyes sends me straight away to my watercolor painting area or to the meditation cushion.

Best to end this now wishing any reader who stumbles upon this a day of composure and strength. That is the wish for my own self today as well.

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Light is the Mother of Life, Different Pandemic Rhythms, and Tarot Wisdom

Okay.  I just like that thought!  Light is the Mother of Life.  This thought arrived on Mother’s Day while engaged in the “Art of Just Being”.  Here I am reflecting on different rhythms.  And I’m going to do a little reading with my cards here today too.   Anyway, it seems I’m doing a lot of that ‘just being’ lately and as usual lots of self-analysis along with it.

I’m working on a painting of a shooting star while thinking about following my own star.  I may have lost track of it but it’s okay, its never far away– just a bit of attention and intention is needed and I’ll find it again.  We are all, I’m sure, with this pandemic energy living our lives in a different rhythm.

Here’s a crazy fact that I recently came upon.  We breathe 23,040 times a day.  I don’t know who figured that out or if it’s true.  I read it in some book.  If we accept this number is about right, how many breaths are we actually aware of?  We can’t be fully mindful of all of them but how about just 10 at a time now and then?  That’s do-able.  We bring inside of our body, mind, and soul (our life) what we focus upon — breath is chi (life force energy) or also written as Qi as in Qigong.  I’ve been doing some QiGong exercises since the pandemic.  Good stuff.  If you haven’t tried it, my recommendation is to give it a go.

I’ve also been cutting my own hair (just the bangs, like 3 times now–or is it 4?–since the lockdown).  Our hair salons may open on the 22nd of May but our COVID-19 escalated dramatically since the Phase 1 re-opening.  The governor in our state says people are not distancing and masking and thus cases are going up and this next phase may not happen on the 22nd.

I’ve been jogging too since the gyms closed since i have to get my cardio somehow — things are progressing with that as my knees cooperate.  The happiest moments since the pandemic is that I’ve been Zoom–ing with my 4-year-old granddaughter, reading her library books.  Yes, our library lets you put books on hold, and then they call you about when to pick them up in the storage area at a designated time.  She was asking about volcanoes and so I read some library books about that on video conferencing.

I brought out my drum and tried connecting to the heartbeat of the earth — doing a drumming meditation is special.  Haven’t used my drum in ages!

What to ask the cards today?  I’m looking for wisdom, not necessarily a prediction of any kind.  Going forward what should be the focus?  Or better said What should the focus be right now?  Where should I/we/you put your attention?  I ask this because rambling around in the mind is the thing I wrote above.  Here it is again:  We bring inside of our body, mind, and soul (our life) what we focus upon.  So I will draw 3 cards and see what wisdom can be derived from those.  For myself, I am really thinkin’ of how to find my star again which really means how to connect with my inner creativity and joy.  Yeah, so that’s the focus of these 3 cards.  This is for you, too, reader if you choose to participate and want to connect 9more deeply) with your star too.

Five of Cups; King of Pentacles; Knight of Wands: 

a bit of Divination

Well, right off we can see 5 of cups really represent that feeling of loss and maybe some depression and anxiety — any of us can have a mixture of any or all of those feelings or experiences in any combination or degree during a pandemic.  The 5 of cups is the card that typically represents a setback of some type.  Essentially, to me, this first card represents the situation that is being addressed in this question.  The loss of connection to one’s star is due to a loss or setback of some kind.  There is disappointment about some events which is would be natural but one wonders if the feelings that one experiences are due to making wrong choices of some kind.  What is lost is lost and what is gone is gone and the more we want to go back to what was, the more we suffer.  Maybe you see some of yourself in this description.  In my own situation, I gave up some things and now wonder …well, I wonder what those two cups that are still standing in that card represent for me.  I am looking for that — the new passion and creativity.  How can I find it?  I am going to look now at the other two cards for some insight.  Intuitively, first I have to accept that I did NOT make wrong choices and this will lift my spirit.  Then I can see those other cups.

The King of Pentacles is about mastering life on Earth.  Master of materiality etc. is always my first thought when I see this card. This energy is about seeing opportunity (in this case for passion, creativity, and joy) everywhere.  This card is reminding me that I just need to open my eyes and draw from what is around me and that’s how I can recognize those 2 leftover cups in the 5 of cups.  For me, however, the word opportunity doesn’t feel exactly right.  There is a steadiness and a feeling of grounded routine that comes with this card.  Mastering life on the earth at this time with a steady even temperament.    The King of Pentacles can take most any idea and can make it work.  Maybe this is something that I am denying in myself?  The phrase about the ability of the King of Pentacles to draw from what is around him really sparks in me visions of writing.  I work on a book and then abandon it.  Writers do that, you know?  They use people, places, and experiences around them as characters, settings, and events in a book. This is something that I’ve tried but so far have not really been able to embrace and utilize very well.  I think that this card has re-awakened a part of my star.  It’s about writing!  And the pandemic is giving out more than enough material for the kind of sci-fi fantasy ideas that I’ve been working with already.   I wonder how this card meaning would apply to a reader of this blog.  I hope something that I wrote above about the King of Pentacles has been helpful to you.

What else will help with seeing those other cups and finding my (and/or your) star again?  There is one more card.  The Knight of Wands.  One meaning of this card that always comes to mind relates to awkwardness — this knight is not real polished and maybe rushes into things and then falls off his horse.  Well, that describes my book writing attempts just perfectly really! He goes off half-cocked as the saying goes and either is way too overly confident and then at the first sign of a problem becomes frustrated and even angry when things don’t come together as imagined.  This, too, describes my feelings with the off and on writing that I’ve done over the years.  BALANCE is the keyword that arrives in my intuition right now.  This Knight of Wands has some trouble staying balanced with his efforts.   There needs to be daring and detail both at the same time in order to remain in balance.  If the King of Pentacles energy can combine with and help the Knight of Wands, this could help with the commitment and patience that is needed with writing a book.  I wrote above how the King of Pentacles is steady and even-tempered and that energy is within each of us and we can draw upon it to help our Knight of Wands awkwardness and impatience. We can do that if we can let go of our real or perceived setbacks and get over what hasn’t worked in the past and remember that there are 2 cups that contain joy, creativity, and passion leading to a reconnection to our star.

Well, this post is twice as long as was intended.  However, it is my hope that while I worked out this wisdom and guidance using my intuition and the tarot that it has been helpful to others in some way.

A few parting shots based on the above tarot wisdom:  Are you in a rut with me? Try something new or go back to what you’ve been wanting to do and have maybe given up on.  Are you planning every last detail? Try winging it.  Make an outline but be flexible whatever you do, stay balanced–that last part from someone with firsthand knowledge of the importance of balance . . .  Sun, Neptune, Moon stellium in Libra.  

 

What Now? The Sun just moved into Pisces

Sun Transiting Pisces

The transiting Sun just entered Pisces as I write this post. The exact time was yesterday 2/18/20 at 11:58 pm Eastern.  If you were born with your Sun in Pisces, Happy Birthday!  What could a Sun transiting through Pisces mean for the rest of us?

Before attempting to answer that, the reply should actually be qualified by what house (s) contain the sign of Pisces in your birth chart and what aspects (connections to) other transiting or birth planets affect its energy.

That said, generally speaking here, I will review transiting Sun in Pisces in common terms so as not to complicate matters.

The basics.  The Sun travels around the zodiac (all the houses in the chart) or if you prefer the dictionary definition of zodiac, an imaginary band in the heavens centered on the ecliptic that encompasses the apparent paths of all the planets and is divided into 12 constellations or signs each taken for astrological purposes to extend 30 degrees of longitude.  

So Sun has just moved through 30 degrees of the previous constellation of Aquarius and into Pisces.  Basic meanings of the Sun itself include phrases such as where a person shines or one’s purpose on an external world/visible level.  Sun rules the 5th house of a chart and thus is associated with creativity and vitality.  While the Moon relates more to the inner world of moods/emotions, the Sun relates more so to the outer world of personality/ego.  The Sun is connected with the archetype of how one identifies one’s self and how one wishes to be seen by others. The Sun is associated with one’s will and determination.

So how do those Sun qualities out-picture the sign of Pisces?  What can you or I expect to affect those qualities in our own life when the Sun moves into Pisces?

I will attempt to use my own chart as a reference here and hope that doing so will add to the reader’s understanding of astrology.  There is a need for me to sort of meditate, contemplate, or sit with the combination of a Sun/Pisces blend in order to receive some insight about how I can answer that for myself.

Recall that Pisces is ruled by Neptune (ruler of the 12th house) and so those qualities relate to dreaminess, spirituality or higher-consciousness, the subconscious, as well as escapism and confusion.  I always think of Pisces in relation to a need for discernment or the flip side of that the delusions associated with a lack of trust.

Here one has to remember that the house of the planet and sign has an influence as well as the ruling planets.  Astrology is like synchronizing energy.  Personally, that’s why I like it since I enjoy reading those energy signatures.  But in this post, I’m going to try to keep it simple if I can.

So a blend of will, determination, and purpose combined with spirituality or spiritual path — for me, that’s how I see the Sun in Pisces energy affecting my life.  I used my intuition as I combined those qualities as well as my own current life experience.  As I considered the Sun transiting in Pisces in my life now, there has been a shift in how I’m doing daily meditation.

It does require some application of will but not too much since meditation is not to be tight or contain too much concentration.  So that will and that purpose (Sun)combined with the mind/higher consciousness and spiritual path (Pisces) makes sense in my life at this time. Revisiting a meditative focus on the jhanas (deeper states of meditative concentration) on more profound levels than at previous times in my life is my overwhelming calling at this time.  And a recent intuitive calling to do this does relate with the timing of this Sun in Pisces transit.

You can go to www.astro.com to create your own birth chart for free *(of course, you must know your time of birth) in order to determine where (what house) the Pisces Sun is transiting in your chart.

In my case, the transiting Sun in Pisces has just entered my 7th house (relationships to others) and will touch into my 8th house before the Sun moves into Aries.  Issues related to my 7th house of relating to others may come into play for me between now and mid-March when the Sun moves our of Pisces.  That last part has to be kind of general leastwise if it isn’t there will be an entire chart interpretation to follow.

One last piece that could be added is that the transit will trigger the birth Sun area and pull that dynamic into the scene.  For me, that’s my 2nd house Libra Sun, Neptune, Moon stellium in Libra.  So lots of Libra energy connections affecting what I value in the world and how I relate to myself as well as others especially with regard to my spiritual purpose and how I use my will to express it or enhance it.

I hope this reflection on the Pisces Sun Transit blog post will interest readers new to astrology and be helpful to anyone who may stumble upon this.

And may you be happy!