Squares and Oppositions

With the sky full of the oppositions and squares of planets and asteroids to one another, with the Earth in between, one wonders what’s going on? And what is going on is a lot of tough stuff here on Earth. From sudden departures of good friends to wicked weather, one’s ears are pricked to attention. I am a dirt gardener and when times get tough, I head for the garden. The earth grounds me and helps absorb the tears. And it always reflects what’s going on. 

With the moon in receptive earth sign Virgo at the moment, I am planting and transplanting and repotting everything that needs that particular attention. In other words, I am thinking in terms of the future year, and what I can do to meet the needs of my plants to the best of my knowledge and awareness, along with the help of the moon’s cyclic position. 

And that is also part of what squares and oppositions tell us. They are a wake up call to pay attention and look around. What needs doing, rethinking, updating? What can we leave behind and what should we nurture for the future? 

Not that any of this is easy. It’s hard work breaking out of the comfortable boundaries we’ve known, but we are at a point where it will get easier if we take a reflective look around, make adjustments and move on.

Bloedel Reserve, Bainbridge Island, WA

Eclipse Weather

I worry that I talk too much about bad weather as I reread this blog. But the fact is there is a lot of difficult weather as there is a lot of difficult life and death. Challenges greet us at every turn of the seasons and often in the midst of them. If I were to add up all the days of bad weather each year, they might be roughly the same number, year after year. What seems different lately is that the periods of particular weather situations seem to last longer, stretching out into stressful extents that try everyone’s endurance. Even the long, dry, comfortable summer, so pleasurable for vacationers and merchants, was agonizing for a gardener set on keeping plants alive and thriving. Plants and people need water.

The total lunar eclipse last week ushered in a change from the past to an uncertain future, as all lunar eclipses are traditionally expected by astrology to do. This one did so with an insistent whoosh longer than any I have seen. After hitting us with 3” of much desired rain, it followed up with six solid days of relentless, Northeast gale force winds. Two or three are the usual, not six. Not a leaf escaped the assault unless barricaded behind a wall or hedge. No hurricane this no name storm, just weather at seemingly endless length, leaving no question that change has indeed arrived. 

It is time to think ahead and leave the past behind.