(more) Astrology from the Vardo: MORE LIBRA, Art and Forgetfulness

I'm loving this recent crossing over, putting astrology more front and center (or left and right of center ... off-center jt this is fun!) here on VardoForTwo.

If there was ever a time for me to be more fully me, it's now. With Libra's balanced skill of negotiating approach so fully in the sky it will help me and all the collective to get through this Full Harvest Moon in the sign of Aries, the Ram(tonight). It's important to keep that hot temper of the Ram from inciting me and loosing focus/balance at this precious time.

Safe Haven and wintering over are keening on our minds here on the Ledge, the night temperatures are quivering at 40 and the wetness makes the cold feel colder. It's only our second winter back on this continent after 15 winters back on the islands of my birth (Hawaiian Islands, for any who might not know). The adjustment period is still in the works, and to what degree there can actually be comfort ... that is debatable.

"I am usually home by November," I said to myself as I stepped outside to pee early this morning. I thought I'd be able to grow old, and older on the Islands and then real life happened and I am preparing for a winter with snow (probably) and temperatures far from tropical.

Still, the energy of the season and the skies is fueling us. It's Libra energy I'm talking about and specially youthful Libran energy that offers these two old vardo dears inspiration and insight, and hope. Here's something that has continued to provide Pete and me with hope and flexibility. It's an ancient knowing.

From Laotsu,

"The way to learn is to assimilate.
The way to know is to forget."

The conditions we find ourselves in as we navigate this Gypsy-type life offer us both opportunities: first the door to 'learning' and the second to 'knowing.' They are not the same and that's where my exposure to youthful knowing inspires my Jupiter-nature (that sense of knowing and exploring, and also, PUBLISHING). The years of learning to understand the new normal of life with MCS pushed my research buttons (Scorpio and Mercury hanging together in the 10th House where my role in society is highlighted) and finding a name for this 'thing' that just kept eluding me. "Could I really be allergic to the world?" The answers I was getting from others and from myself were "Well ... maybe." In the early stages of learning, our answers were to keep moving looking or the perfect space/place that would no longer make me sick. We were still firmly in the place of believing in a rigid architecture of place/house/community/environment. That stage of learning lasted more than ten years, miles of travel, and many mistakes (an intimate part of the process of learning).

What changed after the 10 years? How is the journey different?

Two years ago and especially during the last year, I finally had a name to the symptoms and it was MCS. Brought to our knees and to the wall we began to know ... through forgetting. Hmmm...odd, and funny for the answer seems to be MCS with all it's new answers to normal is teaching me to forget nearly ever thing I learned as an adult. (Pluto in Sag)

Here is where the inspiration of youth and Libra have offered us such gifts.

• My son the Libra Sun.

This summer my son traveled to France to teach the Hawaiian healing practices of Lomi-lomi. This is the young man born in the Pacific Northwest to an Aries Sun Father and a Scorpio Sun Mother. Through this youthful and blood-related example I see that some of my dreams (of sharing culture, healing and communication) will not be mine to experience. Instead, the dream will be passed into the hands of another with assistance from his roots (me). I have invested in a dream and it is my son's hands that carry the work forward.

• Leslie over at the Oko Box.

This Southern wahine is part of the MCS community who began to nurture me when Pete and I arrived in Seattle in May of 2008. Through the keys and connections of the internet I read her blog, and began to know a young spritely energy who was having fun. Ha, how can she? Her quirky and sassy attitude jumped off the screen. At first, I didn't know what to make of it.

Her artistic background was being redirected with her diagnosis of MCS and she was making her personality and her Libra sun very happy, balancing the scales in a unique and engaging way. I followed her consistently, and slowly began to comment and join the commentary.

It was her call for help to put her on a donkey that really lit the fuse for me. This gal was living her talk, and she was gonna get a donkey to get from here to there, because she cannot ride in cars no more. (Click on this to read her story). Ever since that Donkey Dream post I have known how much my old beliefs and mode of operation (MO) were losing their grip on me. They just don't fit. Leslie was just doing it ... buying a donkey, and yesterday she was preparing to put up fence posts to keep JuJuBean safe and stalled.

• Rima Staines at The Hermitage Blog

Rima Staines is a mistress (as "He is a master") of drawing beautiful images, and authors a fabulous blog called The Hermitage. During one of the dark winter times while we worked through the building of Kolea Nani, an anonymous tip came from a visitor to VardoForTwo. I think I was asking, "Where do you go when you are down or empty?" The anonymous tip was a link to Rima Staines website and blog.

If you have not visited yet, it may suit you at some point. I have been an appreciative fan of Rima's art, and more than that she and her mate and dear friend Tui are also wheelie folk who live in their Bedford van on the Isles across the Atlantic. For nearly a year I have visited, viewed and enjoyed the visual and lyrical verses this young woman shares through her blog. Through our visiting, we share the realities and the uncommon knowing of life from a microcosm called a vardo. There is kindred spirit between us now and we are better for it.

Rima celebrated her entry into her third decade recently, a Libra. She shared her birthday on her blog and there we who visited were gifted with her self-portrait and a look at her home-made birthday cake (mailed through the post by her mum!) Ah, this woman of course, could easily be my own daughter. My son is 37 so they are contemporaries.

It was Rima who commented on our blog a while back on my angst with cruel and insensitive views of our lifestyle. This is what Rima said:

Hello Mokihana and Pete, I felt to comment here as I know how horrible it is when you read criticisms of what you are doing! Really, do not worry about it.. we often say to each other how it makes our hearts soar to see an "encampment" with all the goods and chattels that surround a wheeled house. We too are concerned about our visual impact in the land and tuck things away under the truck obsessively! But isn't there something lovely about evidence of folks living outside?
Beyond that, people should be less critical of others doing such creative things and let them get on with it.

Hugs to you both from us here in an approaching English autumn,
X Rima

• A final youthful inspiration comes from Amestress (I don't know her astrology) who blogs over at Life The Final Attempt (Not Really!). I recently found this young woman and am reading her views, experiences and ideas and am regularly entertained with her dancing. It's fun! Rather than try to summarize or paraphrase the latest post to hit me where I live, I'll leave a link to her post TEN GOOD THINGS ABOUT HAVING MCS.

From the VardoForTwo, this old dear knows something good is happening with Libra and youth. Just for today ... why not!



Is there a difference between learning and knowing?


The photo credit for the Hands in this post goes to a wonderful site called Hands Art Lesson Ideas