Awakening

This winter’s persistent confusion of weather has perhaps almost reached its finish. With a new Moon yesterday in Pisces that soon moved into Aries and the Sun about to do the same on Tuesday, the pace of spring growth is quickening regardless of the lingering cold. I don’t recall ever seeing the late winter bulbs - snowdrops, croci and iris reticulata - develop so early in February and still be here in late March, with many of them still not even fully open yet. They have been challenged repeatedly by snow fall, freezing temperatures and constant wind. The metaphor of this with the news feed needs no pointing out, except in that they have not keeled over and died. They have closed back up, bent over and dirtied their faces. But they keep rising from their beatings to do what is expected of them - grow on and develop through their cycles and live to see another year. 

New Moon and the spring equinox coming close together reinforces this moment for being the best time all year to start a new practice for self-care or for getting a routine going for spring cleaning of the body. It is difficult to do that in January, but by now the body yearns for it. And the first perennial greens - sorrel and chives in my garden - are already emerging to assist with the cleansing plan.  Wild dandelion greens won’t be too far behind, hopefully. Now is the time to get walking outside again, both to drop the winter weight gain and stretch our legs and breathe fresh air.

Mars has also changed signs recently, from Sagittarius to Capricorn. With that change we are more able to take action and actually get things done, not just thought about. Not that it will be easy. For a few weeks or so it will be quite challenging with a retrograde from Mercury, but progress will be made and become easier as spring unfurls its energetic support. 

Toss those bulbs a little food after full moon and again in the fall. They’ve maxed out their reserves of energy this winter, as have we all. Take care of yourselves well this spring - it is time to replenish!

Trying to See Level at Sea Level

This singular object encountered today on my beach walk with the dogs caught my attention. In fact, aside from the intense need for love, it was the only thing that has caught my total attention all week. In other words, it is really hard to focus one’s attention at the moment. We are being pulled in a multitude of directions all swinging from the axis of one planet, Jupiter, the expanding leader.

Mercury (retrograde now for three weeks until May 3) is conjunct Uranus in the sign of Aries the warrior, adventurer, explorer and risk taker. Mercury in traditional astrology has to do with communication in all forms and in the classical world was the messenger of the gods. He is our thinking realm, as well as what we say or sing or play or write. And Mars, our energy, direction, ambition and drive is in Mercury’s sign, Gemini. So there is some transference and a lot of processing of where we are or not (home with Ceres or elsewhere?) and our need to express that. Uranus, planet of freedom and independence, snuggled up to Mercury this week, supports and encourages an exploration to other dimensions, as well as promoting restless minds. Whether in reaction to Trumpism or off with space shots, we are looking beyond our usual boundaries. We are entering a new world and whether we want to go there or not, we are forced to go. 

The current planetary stresses are complex and multiple. Ideology confronts stability at home. The urge to move into other dimensions of mind (i.e. the internet - the current drug of choice for the millions) is hard to ignore. And yet this past month has also reignited our need for love and sharing, for community and connection in an actual physical reality, as Venus joined the planet of healing, Chiron. 

This image of a seedpod lying on the beach today somehow encompassed what is going on. We are in the midst of renewal here in the Northern hemisphere. However, spring appeared to be late, and it did not feel like renewal, it has felt tough and hard and battered. April in Paris was confrontational, not romantic. But within the hard carapace of the external, there is always the soft tissue of new life. It needs nurturance and personal devotion and our being alert. Our future is not washed up on shore - that was the past. Our future is as partners moving into the new cycle.

Snow Moon Eclipse

Full moon eclipses usher in a period of leaving the past behind for awhile. Present Earth concerns rise to the fore and push forward looking more for progress than for reflection on what has been. With this monthly opposition taking place in Leo (moon) and Aquarius (Sun) the arena is all about the realm of the masses eclipsing the realm of the leader. Or, in other words, the rule of democracy eclipsing the rule of the monarch.

Toward the end and after yesterday's snowstorm I watched the bird feeder activity with great interest. Everyone was cold and hungry and eager to take care of themselves after hiding out in the hedges for hours. Finches in large number, chickadees, sparrows, nuthatches, woodpeckers and more were vying for a place at the feeder. But heading the lot was one immature bright red male cardinal who dominated the area. He even patrolled at the entry to all the food and chased the others away, though there was plenty for everyone. He wouldn't even let the female cardinals join him at the feast. They all let him get away with it for awhile until another large bird challenged him and they pecked beaks repeatedly until the cardinal backed down. At that point, the rest of the crowd broke in and grabbed what they could and the cardinal never got back the position he had held so forcibly at first. He sat to the side, seemingly chastened, and watched the frenzy. Nor did the other large bird take up a position of dominance. He fed with the rest, knowing that food was the essential thing, not dominance.

These next two weeks until the new moon eclipse on February 26th should be quite interesting as well. The eagle will be challenged.

Loving Kindness, January 21, 2017

A time of extraordinary events continues to unfold with sometimes alarming rapidity lately. The world is going through a prolonged period of adjustment to new technologies as well as a parallel dramatic change in the weather as Earth goes through adjustments as well. Whether man made or cosmic makes no difference - for the changes are happening now to our planet and to all of us. We are being awakened and sleep is not an option. 

So I was glad to see that the astrology for the Women’s March looked promisingly peaceful with Venus and Mars united by/with Chiron, all together in Pisces. Venus and Mars encounters are most always a time of passionate emotion and can be quite glorious. United by Chiron, the wounded healer of myth, the energy of the day could not have been more loving in its inclusiveness and its need to express the healing energy of love. Pisces is the last sign of the zodiac and holds the highest expectation for spiritual union between self and other. In essence that union is mother and child, which is all of us. 

The millions of women (and men and children and babies) who marched on Saturday did not know what they were going to experience. They went because they were compelled to participate in shared self expression. Even those who were motivated by anger and frustration were transformed by the power of union of purpose. We were all fed up with a belligerant divisiveness thrust upon us that we do not feel ourselves. We had to come together peacefully to express that and we did, all over the world. 

It is important to remember that every one of the people who marched knew at least 10 or 20 or 100 more people who would have liked to be there too, but couldn’t. Perhaps they were having their knees or hips replaced, or needed to. Perhaps they were working or caring for children or elders or the sick. Perhaps they were afraid to be themselves and exercise their rights to free speech. Perhaps they were dying. There were many, many more millions of people marching with us on Saturday in their hearts.

Thank you Venus. Thank you Mars. Thank you Chiron. Thank you Cosmos. Thank you for showing us that loving kindness is possible, that we can stand shoulder to shoulder to shoulder with 400,000 others and not be afraid, but smile at everyone and be kind to one another. We showed the world, and ourselves, what is possible. And that is PEACE.

Full Moon Hawks Return

I have been feeding songbirds in one place for decades. They know me, trust me, entertain me with music all day and glorious colorful diversity and they probably depend on me to some extent. I grow what they like to feed on in summer and fall, tons of berries and fruits of native and immigrant plants. And I grow a lot of trees and plants, native and immigrant, that nurture the lives of myriad insects, who also feed the birds. In November, as stocks start to decline and cold sets in, I subsidize with feeder seed to get them through the winter and early spring. It is a bountiful place to hang out if you are a bird and open to all. 

Last winter everything changed with a new addition at the feeders, a young Cooper’s hawk took up residence as well. Birds of prey used to be rarely seen on our property with only a few occasional visitors during migration periods. Great horned owls are often in evidence at night with their welcome goodnight hoots before our bedtime and kingfishers patrol the lakeside for their meals. But hawks made only occasional stop-overs, whether because food was ample elsewhere or because they did not thrive in as great numbers as they seem to do now.

What are usually in abundance, aside from the songbirds, are crows. Crows keep together in family groups and can be annoying to all nearby, especially single predators. They are relentless protectors of their territory and can get quite furious with the presence of supposed marauders like owls, hawks and local cats on the prowl. The songbirds rely on their warnings caws, as do I, to alert us to danger. In some Native American stories, the crow represents the Law, and it is easy here to see why. They rule the areas in which they live for the protection of their tribe. Until now.

This fall a full grown red-tailed hawk seems to have set up residence nearby. His daily presence in the trees around the house is a disturbing addition to our usual calm, but he seems little disturbed by the crows or any of us humans or dogs who also reside here. He knows he is not hunted. He sometimes sits in a tree waiting for hours, perhaps just digesting, but in no hurry to leave. He thinks he has his own feeder, I suppose, and the pickings are easy when supplied by others. He has a lot in common with the rat in my compost.

Today I decided to give him some more of my attention after filling the feeders. I took my camera out and watched him as he watched me photograph. I watched him and watched and watched and he finally got annoyed enough by my accounting of his actions as he moved from branch to branch that he got bored, or hungry, and flew off. It may be my only defense of my defenseless small birds. Watch hawks like a hawk and they will get tired of it. They may even go catch a rat. Let’s hope.

Sitting at the Crossroads

It has been a weekend of uncommon quiet here in the garden. Exquisite blooms everywhere were challenged lately by cycles of incessant winds, then rain, then cool mist followed by hot, humid sun and more rain, into short spurts of open flowering and then curling back under cover just as quickly to protect those reproductive parts for a calmer, sunnier day. What weather each day might bring is a mystery.

Our planets and asteroids are splayed across the sky at the moment in a grand spread all around the Earth. Some of the major players are forming a grand questioning cross with each other while others are forming a grand agreeable trine, and others are opposing each other in direct confrontation, Earth always at center of it all. The result of all this interaction is that we are are at a crossroads of activity, of feelings, of energy, of thinking. Which direction do we take next? Expand, contract, get serious, celebrate or chill out?

This weekend we have been at the new moon phase, which is a quiet time of the month, a time to reflect, finish up the last month’s projects and prepare for the coming month. But we are also quickly approaching the high point of the year as summer solstice is right around the corner here in the northern hemisphere. It is almost the BIG time of the year for us, when we are most active and feeling our strengths. But we are at a small pause.

As I worked outside in the evening dusk a few nights ago, I found myself surrounded by ghosts, ghosts of nearly fifty years of life at this place. Ghosts of trees and plants long gone, neighbors, friends and family now dead who loved this land, beloved pets of many generations who are buried here who knew every smell and inch of the garden. It wasn’t spooky, it was comforting. Every being that has dwelled here, however long, has left a trace of consciousness that lingers. It isn’t October 31st. It is JUNE and I feel their life presence, not their death absence.

We are at a time of recognizing and appreciating accomplishment, looking at what has been and at where we are now, getting perspective. There are no clear answers at the moment for what comes next. We are being faced with a complex present that we all must confront and think about, responding as best we can with common endeavor and awareness of how what came before informs us still.  

Restless

New Moon in Aries with Uranus 

This is a very strange time, unusual in that the Sun, Moon and Uranus are all together at the beginning of the zodiac. It is another marker of the start of spring, being in Aries, the sign of beginnings and at the beginning of the first complete moon cycle of the spring. Uranus, ruler of freedom and independence, has added an element of the unknown and a restlessness to move on quickly. We are ready, eager even, for something new and liberating. Spring, yes, but more.

This year’s winter was the polar opposite of last year’s, warm and with little snow or ice, there were many pleasant days and nights, and it actually felt like winter never really arrived as such. 

One of the early spring blooming plants in my garden, Arabis ferdinandi-cobergi, has been in bloom non-stop since December. It usually blooms in April-May. Many late winter/early spring blooming bulbs bloomed a full month or more ahead of their usual time and are already gone. 

Nothing seems quite as it should be in the garden with sharp swings in temperatures. Now in April, freeze threatens regularly the plants that usually don’t face that challenge. Tough, low-growing spreading types, like the Arabis and Violets took advantage of the lacking severity of the colder months, increasing their hold, while other plants, lured too early, are producing fewer or weaker flowers this year. All the spring plants are facing a different kind of spring, but face it they must. 

The message that Uranus carries is expect the unexpected and be prepared to adjust to anything that comes our way. For we are living in experimental times and new experiences are around every corner that once was familiar. 

Waning Moon in Libra

When the moon is waning, that is, when we are winding down after the building up of a project that pushed forward with steady momentum from new moon to full moon, we aren't completely done with that project. We are putting on the finishing touches as we move through the slower period of the waning moon. This month's moon cycle started with the new moon in the sign of Aquarius, the sign associated with humanity in the collective sense, as well as getting the message out to the collective.
It built to a full moon in Virgo last Monday with myriad details to work out, and now with the moon in Libra today and tomorrow, we share the final stages of the work with our partners and team mates.
This is when we gather together to get to the point of moving the message out to the greater world.

It is a time to savor, this sharing of a project coming to completion in some way, for it won't last very long before the next one presents itself to start thinking about. In fact, it may be in the sharing right now with co-workers that the next cycle's project gels in the minds of those concerned. Yes, there is another week to finish up with the old stuff of this cycle, but we are already clearing space in our minds for the next cycle that begins on March 8 with a solar eclipse.

Share dreams of what might be with others. It's time to dream and connect.

Timing

Astrology is all about timing, observation of cycles here on Earth and in the sky and applying that observation to practical use. Each year, I publish a calendar of best days for doing various gardening jobs according to the cycles of the moon, along with a simple explanation of them.

Since the waxing moon was in Cancer this past week, I got an early start on my own spring planting by seeding flats for growing indoors under lights. Lettuce, spinach and escarole are on their way!

Here's the calendar link:

https://hahgarden.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/2016-moon2.pdf

Midwinter Changes

If you have been up to your neck recently in changing your house around, cleaning and decluttering, and seeing your space differently, then you are right in sync with the earth's changing position. Yesterday we reached Imbolc, or midwinter, one of the eight major seasonal shifts each year. The ancients depended on their observation of the sky to know what next to expect and their measurements of the changes there helped them organize their activities. The Solstices and Equinoxes are the main four indicators of change but the midpoints are also important. Though most of us don't recognize these mid seasonal moments, we often still celebrate them in some way such as Groundhog Day (Imbolc), May Day (Beltane), early August was traditionally known as First Harvest (Lughnasadh) and Halloween (Samhain). As midpoints of the current season they indicate a shift toward the next one, hence at this time of year comes our motivation to start the spring cleaning and renovation of our indoor space, while we have time for it. Come late March we'll be in full swing implementing the outdoor work of the real springtime. At least that is how a gardener sees and knows things to be.

Add to that the fact that we are in the last days of the moon cycle and this past week has been busy finishing up those changes in the household, so that next week we can move them along into the next phase - after the clean-up/spruce-up comes the new order. Yesterday, while taking a break from reorganizing a freshly painted room, I stepped outside into uncommonly warm, damp air for what felt like a very real breath of spring. Immediately I noticed change as I noted there were two male red-winged blackbirds at the feeders. Rarely are they here so early in the year, though it has happened before. What really nailed me to the spot was the the sound of birds singing everywhere. After several months of mostly silence this is always a magical moment. The raptors, owls and hawks, are heard frequently here in winter, but the song birds keep to the business of finding food and keeping out of reach of the raptors. It is highly unusual for the songbirds to be belting it out at the beginning of February! A female cardinal sat in the big maple above me singing every note she's ever sung in her life, loudly and incessantly for five minutes, with a full blown passion usually reserved for mating season, still weeks away.

Which brings me to the big event of the weekend - Venus conjunct Pluto with the moon passing by as well, in Capricorn. Pluto (transformation) has been in Capricorn (institutions, governments, buildings, structures of all kinds...) for awhile now and is about halfway through its journey there - another noteworthy midpoint. With Venus (love, beauty, partnership, peace, cooperation) and the moon (feelings, family, the past) joining it, this could be an extraordinary time for team play, as in let's change our world and make it a more peaceful, loving place.

Yes, I know that there is a big game happening in the US this weekend, and that is part of the conjunction. But there is something else going on that people are passionate about now - change for the better, we've had enough of hearing the worst about ourselves and our governing, or wannabe governing, bodies. In the news today, the Pope and the Russian Orthodox Patriarch are going to meet and start to iron out a thousand year old argument - that is Venus meeting Pluto in Capricorn big time. If more events like this one, aiming toward peace and goodwill, are about to emerge then we'll all have something to sing about... meanwhile, enjoy your own transformations with love this weekend, it could be powerful! And you may learn something more about sharing.