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.