Cosmic Pie: An Astrological Tool for the Canary Carnival

Author's note:  This is an article written in July,2009.  I have edited it, refreshed a bit for the Canary Carnival.  What was the core of it remains true for me these months later. 

Astrology is a life navigation tool that serves me well.  The Natural Zodiac with its cycles based on time (movements through the months and the signs of the Zodiac beginning with Aries) and the character of each of the Houses (reflecting the psychological and physical energies of a person's nature) offers me, and generations of cultures on Earth a valuable guide to real life.

The entire original post can be found here:  http://vardofortwo.blogspot.com/2009/07/cosmic-pie-using-natural-zodiac-on-way.html

The Natural Zodiac

Cosmic pie in twelve pieces

I'm moving forward in clearing the pockets of pilau (crap) left from herbicides and fragrances from scents. Plenty of good stuff is happening. The fact that there are rough patches through which we scrape our way is part of the whole, and in light of all this evidence of positives it helps to acknowledge how I get through the rough spots ... part of the process of opting out of suffering. In addition to the helpful treatments and caring ways in which I malama this makua, there are the cosmic pies like astrology. Let's see if I can translate the use of astrology and the natural zodiac to get at the bigger picture. I'll start with this comment I left over on ElsaElsa.com this morning and let the story unfold. Link on that highlight above to get a full picture of the astrology of things.

"This is a big piece of Cosmic Pie and this ole girl she loves pie. I’ve been following the thread and watching the vids to eat just one more piece of Cosmic Pie. I am in the 12th house phase of my understanding and ultimate acceptance of the reassembled truth of my health. I am affected by the whole and after 15 years of trying to out run the natural zodiac I get that my plane is down, the losses are great, the grief exists, I have been pissed with the gods and they still hang in there to wait it out with me. I’m cappy moon in the the 12th living in a moon shaped house on wheels smaller than plenty of folks’ walk-in closet. I get to accept my fate and grow gardens where EVER my wheelie home rolls.


The Cosmic Pie you’ve served up here Elsa and the wonderful conversation that was shared because someone (Double Cappy, thank you:]) asked is so perfect. I’m gonna try to translate this onto my blog today, maybe a great thing for a solar eclipse that is supposed to be easy on the Scorps. Thanks a million Elsa and all."

For readers who are new to this blog, welcome to our world where solutions are wide, deep, broad and linked together in an eccentric way. Astrology is one of the many tools I use to make sense of the nature of human. I don't always get the 'why' unless I go way out there, and really have a newbie sense of 'how to be human' so much of the time. Living with Multiple chemical sensitivities, allergies et.al. has been a struggle. The recent exposure to herbicides has tripped the lever on healing at a deep level for me. I used the holistic/Pythagorean explanation of retracing to sort through the process of re-living the aggravations and illnesses/symptoms. It helps me. I seek the personal stories of others who have found solutions to their exposure symptoms.

Astrological insight gives me a view beyond the physical and taps into the Cosmos where words are fleeting, and navigation more ancient. The thread of comments that grew from Elsa P's videos suggesting the use of the Natural Zodiac to opt out of suffering included some very personal insights. I especially liked this comment from Toni, and with permission from Elsa (thanks, EP) I am rewriting it here as a way to connect the journey through the zodiac with my own experience accepting chronic illness and multiple chemical sensitivities. The clan of canaries who live with or support the lives of canaries with chemical sensitivties and environmentally induced illness find relief and solace in diverse ways. Health is defined in so many ways. Here's one way of reckoning truth.

Thanks, Toni


The Houses start with Aries in the 1st House, found at lower half of the chart in the 8:00 position, and continue counter-clock-wise in turn.


1st house- Fighting physically/emotionally.

I return to Hawaii after a 23 year marriage ends. Childhood asthma shows up in reaction to mock orange blossoms and fireworks. I am shocked! I fight back, go to the emergency room and get oxygen, inhalers and a diagnosis that "You have asthma!" Ha? No asthma for 23 yrs away ... then I do. Talk about retracing.

2nd house- Saying ‘no, this isn’t happening.’

Exactly! 2nd house is all about action and anger. I went through lots of that, years of it. Anger directed at my ex-husband, and then the flowers, my past. Things just kept irritating me. I keep fighting, take the medication, and try to get my way.

3rd house- Thinking of a way to get out.

I have a large head, and a history of thinking or reading my way through problems. I had no idea of what 'multiple chemical sensitivities' was or that I was headed down that track. There was surely something else going on with me ... a fix was some where I was not! Emotions, relations and communication get tangled up and crazy.

4th house- Grieving.

New love had come into my life. I grieved the old, yet the hope of new love fueled my sinking ship, my diving plane. There was no doubt my health was tentative, I was moving more in one year than I had in 23. Places weren't safe for long, that hurt, I didn't know how to 'do' this. Where was my place called home?

5th house- Searching deeper in your inner self.

I turned to yoga and supplements to heal me. I walked into the rooms of Al-Anon for a spiritual practice that would tie things together and turned my life over to a power greater than myself. Thing is, I thought the 'cure' would kick in and level life out. I was still doing the control it bit, but I was doing it with grace and Mountain Pose.

6th house- Thinking of the details in order to get out.

Health crises increased even with my yoga and Al-Anon foundations. I began writing more and more. Used words to craft a world that comforted me, explained the inexplicable. The teacher me sought service to others as a way to make things better.

7th house- Weighing both sides of the plan.

My thyroid expands, swelling to the point of undeniable 'issue.' I look at all the possible solutions and decide not to have the glands surgically removed. I still hold fast to the belief that the body - mind - spirit will heal. I begin a raw food life, see healing results and continue to be on the move from one more toxic exposure to herbicides and VOG. We move back to where we started ... and begin spending summers on the continental USA. My relationship with Pete changes, we marry.

8th house- Psychology. Why am I feeling this way?

HERE'S WHERE A LOT OF TRANSFORMATIVE POTENTIAL LIVES ... I come to this very question ... "Why am I feeling this way (after all the good stuff have been doing to make it different?" Saturn and Mars play significant roles in my 8th house. Saturn is about the step by step slow and steady process and no short-cuts allowed reality. Mars is the way a person acts. Together I began seeing that something was missing from the view-master. Pieces were missing from my jigsawed life. There was no denying some things:

1. pesticides and herbicides are bad period.

2. people use them and won't change their habit even when they see how it made me sick. Bad People!

3. moving from house to house/island to island/island to continent was wearing me out.

4. what were the options?


9th house- Why is God doing this to me? What’s the meaning of all this?

At this point Pete and I have bottomed out significantly. We are living in the car, being rousted by the cop, and keep getting poisoned by herbicides. While living in the Subaru we come to sleep nightly at the Tide Pools near Sandy Beach on O'ahu's west side. This is a major healing spot for me. Of the many places on the Earth, these Tide Pools have been a source of care for me since I was a small girl. Night after night we pull into our parking spot after dark and set up our car for sleep. Unsure of our 'safety' yet given no other place to be surrender waits and we drop into it.

Meaning comes from the humiliation, and soon we find that indeed, 'our plane is going down' and there's no stopping it from crashing. We become nomads with a diagnosis: nomad with multiple chemical sensitivities. The illness is not just in my mind, it is in my body.

10th house- Limit the problem.

Six months of living off and on in the car gives you a set of boundaries that could come from no other experience. We know a few more things, and have left behind most of our former chattels of living. We know mobility is a good option for us. We suspect we could build something safe and mobile. We begin to recognize the limitations of a 'formerly normal house' and use surrender to craft a land ark.

11th house- Hoping and wishing. Praying.

Friendships and hope come in such different packages during this stage of our process. In a year we live with or in the general vacinity of eight different friends or family members for as little as a few hours to as much as six months. We do more praying than we'd ever done. We hope for guidance when decisions don't make sense. Some people 'get the conditions of this illness' most don't. I learn to hide from old friends who knew me 'before.' It's easier to not explain.

12th house- Surrendering to the universe and believing there is a bigger plan.

I think we're here now. The blogs we began writing back in October, 2008 are the musings and reality of a surrendered life. Multiple chemical sensitivities is a real day to day, night through the night reality. It is not going to go back to being 'like it was before.' And, it's not likely we would be able to live as we have lived before. My search for transcendent truths take me from fairy tale maker to astrology student, raw food and organic gardener to writer of eccentric blogs and lover to a mate who came to me later in the Cosmic Pie Eating process.

Chronic illness is the universe's ultimate practical joke. It might not seem fair on most days, and probably isn't. Just the same, it does something to my evolving sense of surrender to consider that possibility. If you've made it through and have some energy for a comment, I'd welcome it.

Taurus Sun/Scorpio Full Moon, April 28, 2010

April 28, 2010: Taurus/Scorpio Full Moon (exact at 5:18 am PDT)

Stephanie Gailing who authors Planetary Apothecary describes the Full Moon in Scorpio this way: 

During the Taurus/Scorpio Full Moon we experience the juxtaposition of the practical (Taurus) and the emotional (Scorpio). The interplay between these two signs helps us to forge an awareness that what we see—what has form—is reliant upon that which is unseen but deeply felt.

As it reflects the relationship between the ground (Taurus) and the underground (Scorpio), a garden is a great image to consider when looking at the meaning of this Full Moon. Our senses appreciate the glory of the flowers, trees, ferns, and other earthly Taurean gems that flourish. Yet, it’s important to remember that none of this growth would be possible were it not for that which occurs out of sight, below the surface—such as the complex root structure, the hardworking earthworms, and the decay that feeds the soil. What we are called on to appreciate during this Full Moon is that the beauty we see is not just on the surface but also exists in the places that we may often shy away from, those we may consider “unseemly” or “out of bounds.” Given that Mercury is aligned with the Full Moon, we may be able to more readily connect with the words and images that can help us give voice to these reflections...you're looking at a day filled with passion and pleasure.

http://planetaryapothecary.com/2010/04/taurusscorpio-full-moon-2/


Pete and I are getting ready to take a ferry ride to Whidbey Island where we'll be checking out a new place to be at least temporarily.  Today's moon energy is super-charge and "the relationship between the ground (Taurus) and the underground (Scorpio), a garden is a great image to consider" is what I'm putting my chips on.  Being Scorpio Sun I have been challenged and conflicted by the Tauruses in my life, yet we are two ends to the same kind of passionate energy. 

Vardo living with only two wheels to ground us does require letting down the Scorpio guards so we can feel the comfort of the ground.  I have plenty enough underground energy for a tribe, so my prayers to Mahina in Scorpio are for a lowered guard where it is not necessary while respectful of those internal watch doggies who have a keen nose for stuff doing no good.  Wish us luck!

While searching for a photo that might fit this post I found instead this bit of Full Moon Wisdom

Full moon = hair cuts for todos  if you get your hair cut on a day with a full moon it will grow faster.

More about "HOME", the NEW HOMELESS: The Edgy Reality of Pluto squaring Saturn, the Shout out "Partner Up!"

The Green Planet from Space

"Living public"
One of the Paper Napkin Poems published on The Sam and Sally Blog
Copyright 2008 , Mokihana Calizar

Urban life.

Parking lots paved paradise.

Still the palms sway in the afternoon breeze.

`Aole fruit. Cut to avoid killing a haole from land where snow drifts in the same global afternoon breeze.

Homeless—houseless nomads sleep legally in ALOHA STATE licensed vehicle.

Beware the witching hour.

BONG! 6:01 sleeping, you are citable by law.

Living public the maimed and injured catch the eye, draw heavy hands and big billed brother.

Peck. Peck.

Bang, bang.

Slam, Slam.

Cabang.

Security in the parking lots. Log times in. Log times out...

The moon is plumping, waxing into her fullness, Pete and I emerge from the 'Ole cycle just completed.  Four days and nights of review, revisiting and preparing for more life on The Green Planet.  Funny, the description of Earth as 'the green' one ought to be forever true.  Yet, how long is forever?  The four days of 'ole have, as they usually are, been full.  The daily reality of life remains a mixed bag:  the pounding and sanding of the construction next door continues; the formaldhyde soaked 'used to be wood' walls get wet with the rain and set things even more off-center.  We have made adjustments to that reality by investing in a new AUSTIN JR. Plus air purifier.  It's one that filters formaldhyde.  Our friend "A" has invested in us, too.  Thanks to her offer to have our backs when we need it, we got enough money to cover the expenses for that unexpected 'right to breathe'.  After more than a week, the basement is clearer, though I still must spend limited time and go to the vardo and do NAET self-treatments to clear the energy of the depleting chemical.  I'm 'wearing' a formaldyhyde "patch" for twenty-five hours to allow my body to make adjustments to something that I cannot avoid.  (Link here to find out more about NAET.  This is a healing tool that I use regularly, it is for me a way to affirm my belief that I can move energy through me.  It is NOT A CURE in the medically limited definitions.  NAET is a tool that one opens to if there is room, and uses it with practice and attending.)  My carbon filtering mask dangles, like a pear shaped earring off my left ear.  Back-up protection.

Life as a pair of old dears who sleep and recoup in VardoForTwo, while attached by that orange electrical extension cord, is a reality of The Green Planet's morphing reconstruction.  Astrologically, the planet Pluto (that tiniest of planets or non-planets who mirrors the collective unconscious and primal fears) is parked in the constellation of Capricorn, and is squared off with Saturn (the planet of linear time/structure/limitations) in the sign/constellation of Libra.  Back in 2009 Elsa P. from ElsaElsa.com posted this video to prepare us.  Pete and I have been part of what TIME Magazine is calling the "new homeless."  More about that in a moment.  What's important here is to open to the language of the sky, Astrology, and Elsa P. has been a vital key and teacher for me as I learn to reconstruct my life from a tiny home.  Setting the stage on this Green Planet ... the collective reality is:  no one will go without being challenged at the bone!

Homes, journeys, visits and long stays; Astrological navigation

The Astrological Houses and their Meanings

February is being a very full month for these two old dears.  The Year of the Tiger in Aquarius has brought us a wave of clearing energy, and with Mars the planet of action still busy backing up (that is moving in retrograde) in Leo until March 10th I have taken the suggestion to use that Mars energy while it visits.  Mars has been in Leo since December 20, 2009 so it's a bit of a long stay.  When I read Donna Cunningham and CJ Wright's collaboration, it resonated ... ringing bells loudly enough to tame the ever-present ring in my left ear.  Here's an example of how I use astrology to navigate.  For nearly two years Neptune the planet of illusion and dissillusion as well as the planet some astrologers point to as inciter of 'mystery illness' was squaring off with Mars in my astrological life.  That meant my natural ways of acting out, taking action, would be challenged.  In no small way, my world of acting and moving was dissolved during the past two years when MCS steadily watered down all my notions of stability and actions.  Pete has weathered the years of Neptune's by doing what he has learned to do most of his adult life:  he builds and nurtures.  He's a Crab with a very inquiring mind (Gemini), so he built our VardoForTwo and learned to ride the big waves with me, his Scorpio mate.  Now, Pete is building a nurturing venture for his own dear self. 

This post is not coming easily to the page, so much to explain and such insight to share.  I stop *** breath naturally and ask my aging eyes (which seem to be saying, "New glasses, we think.") to stay with me as I try to keep my focus.  Pete has just walked into the room and listened to my angst about this post.  "I don't see why you don't change the zoon level.  Magnify the screen."  "How do I do that?" I ask.  "Right there."  I click on the little plus sign in the lower right corner and oh, that makes a difference."  See what I mean.  Relationships!  And that is a perfect lead into what my Mars in retrograde work has been all about.  "Relationships."  Mars is in retrograde in my 7th and 8th houses. With the chart above and a copy of my Natal Chart showing the position of the planets, moon and sun (called the 'Transits') for this period of time, I zeroed in on the blessing of taking actions where it could do me the most good.  Sorta like having the most fun with a visitor, this visitor being Mars in my House of Relationships ... "Partnerships of all kind and Marriage." 

Astrology and MCS: more about boundaries

Personality

personal beliefs, expectations, desires, values, and behaviors that derive from the interaction between culture and the individual. Personality is the behaviors and techniques for solving problems that are used by an individual. Personality is to the individual as culture is to the group.

Source:  oregonstate.edu/instruct/anth370/gloss.html

The building crew next door -- three guys, have dug out a deep hole for a new basement, created a french-drain of sorts that channels the persistent appearance of the old stream beds that retain the character of Everett's wetland history; and now as I peak through the slated window blinds, I see those guys walking on stout beams at a height way above my head.  There is progress going on and the noise to boot.  Tucked as we are on the other side of D and L's home, most of the noise and an option to avoid the potential toxicity of treated material are mine.  In a similar way my progress has risen like the framing next door.  Two years ago, any construction would have catapulted me into flight, mattering not the reality that I had no other place to be.  Things in my life are progressing at turtle like speed ... plodding would be accurate.  Three months now, we are parked here in the Mill Town of Everett, Washington a place I had placed on my "I'll never live there again list."  Here I be, in a basement living space within a weak stone's throw from a major building project and we're living here.

Two years of progress shows itself in subtle ways, invisible to the others bloggers like me and scores of others now, mark the progress of life with Multiple Chemical Sensitivities, Environmental Illness and associated maladies that either came before or after diagnosis.  Having access to the internet opens up the community of Sensitives or Canaries to the diverse ways we live with the illnesses.  Earlier this week Pete and I joined more than a dozen friends who live with MCS at our annual Holiday party.  This is an event of great significance to people who have MCS in its varied states of severity or ease.  It is not easy to find one place that is comfortable for a dozen humans with multiple chemical sensitivities.  Fortunately, our friend G has a home that fits that description, and so the party was wonderful.  More at ease and relaxed with folks who not only 'get' the issue ... we all have 'it'... the practice of social interaction becomes one more source of evidence that life is progressing in the right direction.  Each of our friends comes with his or her unique personality and circumstances.  A hand-ful of these folks are still part of the working class.  Funny, I find that phrase strange.  It means there are people with MCS, that I know, who function, either as a result of improved and recovered health, or have a different level of sensitivities and can go to a job/maintain an in-home business.  Nearly all the friends in this group live and own their homes or apartments. One friend rents a very long time rental.  Pete and I are the only wandering wheelie home folks.  We gather to share food, enjoy each others company and share in a circle of telling, one of the highlights (a positive) from the year just finished.  This time, the sharing included examples of many different sorts of plodding positive work:  a longer walk this year than last, excellent results with monthly EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) treatments, time spent during the final days of a loved ones life, a first time plane ride in 12 years, a poet grows stronger in voice and on the page, another witnesses things just working out, a storyteller reads her fairy tale aloud.  The night was special and though tiring, the effort was rewarded in spades.

In another life, groups were a regular part of my experience.  I facilitated groups for a living, organized them for all sorts of reasons and joined a couple when it was necessary to have the support of others who could understand what it was like to believe you could stop someone from drinking themselves to death.  I reflect on those decades and see how my social network worked for me then.  Now, that network needs to be rebuilt.  In the most positive of ways I am learning to recreate my network of support with healthier boundaries.  The demanding limits of a life which will stop you short with a whiff of someone else's heavily scented laundry soap or perfume switches up the way you care for yourself.  When you can no longer live/rent/own the cute house down the block because it makes you sick, something very primal kicks in and that's where the personality after diagnosis becomes important.  I am learning to stick up for me in all the right ways; and in big and small ways.

A nest of a home: Chiron in the house

The 'Ole Days and Night of the Moon have been full.  Though no new projects is the practice we have learned  there are many kinds of weeding and tending/patching and follow-up on the things already in the works. Different things need tending during the winter then in the spring.  What has captured my attention during the three nights of the 'Ole Moon is the effect of the asteroid CHIRON ... the mythological wounded healer that has been making its way through the zodiac in very close company with the planets NEPTUNE and JUPITER.

The link above will take you to a beautifully crafted article by astrology and writer Joyce Mason.  Discovering her work (thanks to Donna Cunningham, again for the navigational tip!) is a perfect example of the sort of nesting work that is perfect for 'Ole Moon weeding and winter time internal restoration.
 
Now, back to the combined effect of the Planet NEPTUNE (one who among other things dissolves boundaries) with the JUPITER (the quick change artist/bringer of lucky breaks) and tiny yet powerfully influential CHIRON (the wounded healer) in my life. After more than sixty cycles of life revolving around the Sun, a very deeply seeded wound is being given a chance to be healed.  The ingredient of awareness comes at different times in a life-time, sometimes we're too young to recognize the nudge.  As we age, the habit of avoiding or denying digs in hiding because like any familiar bit like dust, a virus, a habit simply becomes part of the fabric of the nest.  Months ago, while Pete and I lived in the woods we began telling the story of our life 'On the Ledge.'  Through the real-life experience of finally having a safe haven a.k.a. our VardoForTwo, my Muse came to find comfort in that safe haven.  The Muse is my most powerful ally in the healing of wounds and has been for most of my later adults years.  This Muse is CHIRON manifest ... my internal midwwife, healer and storyteller and wound-mender transforming a life of flight into something magic.  The Muse fed me the story WOODCRAFTING, and I applied discipline and wrote.  (Jupiter governs publishing I have learned)  The fairy tale WOODCRAFTING is a dense thicket of plots and characters including the thread born from a tiny barnacle that becomes part of a larger beings beginning.  Small, over-looked and unheralded, the barnacle transmits its characteristics into a grand species of creation causing unexpected thought forms, leading to boundary breaking actions and ultimately revolutionary changes to the status quo.

Winter has definitely made room for CHIRON, beginning shortly before the Solstice when the walls of a faulty foundation of old beliefs about "responsibility to others" just would not and could not sustain my world any longer.  My undoing is leading me slowly forward, nest building for a spring to come.  No longer keeping secrets about my vulnerability, I have a choice to heal old patterns of coping with the fear of never being safe, or never being able to make the 'right' choices.  The season of in-dwelling and finding comfort can be just the thing I need to heal these old wounds more deeply.  Pausing to think of my next sentence, aware that I might have simply rambled on the page and gotten nowhere, I find this:  "this ain't no whine baby, who could know your real life if not you."

To be continued ...

Do you know where Chiron is in your chart?  To find out go to free astrological chart sites like Astro.com , click on the side bar "FREE HOROSCOPE" and provide the birth information asked for.

Clipart Credit:  The vintage Clipart is from Fairyclipart.blogspot.com.  This free clipart site is yet another of those discoveries and yummy places to go when needing things to refresh and enchant.

Energetic Jackhammering: some times, things have just gotta go!

Donna Cunningham is one seriously informed astrologist with plenty to say about using the energy of light working and astrology to implement a plan of well-being that works for you. The link below will take you to an article called "The Ultraviolet Jackhammer..a tool for demolishing negative beliefs." I used it an hour ago on the belief that "I will never have a safe home, a safe place to be." MCS is a complicated illness born from factors over which I have no control. Safe housing is an issue so many of us live with. For two years now, Pete and I have been growing a dream based on the belief that we could build a safe wee home of comfort. And yet, there are some things that are at work within me that just might benefit from a jackhammer. I tried the "Ultraviolet Jackhammer (with visualization and sound effects) and I liked it. I saw and felt that belief break up into dust and then by god, I couldn't make those sounds again. My sputter and hammering sound effects had gone kaput. There just wasn't any more to break down. While my body-mind-spirit are recovering from that dark night of the soul, I will need tools that get me over the gap and if parts of my former foundations (my beliefs, directions, underlying messages) really need to go ... a jackhammer might be the thing to do the job. I'm not sure if my therapist would agree that a jackhammer is part of the tool-kit for grief work. I know she's got a great sense of humor, so at the very least, the image might be cause for a giggle.

I will tell you truthfully I have never like jackhammers. Until now. It's one more of those things that go into my 'never say never' bucket. I know it's a simple and one time experience that doesn't count for a 'cure'. For now, the visualization is making room for new belief systems and supporting that Vitamin B 12 and Deproloft (Vit D and serotonin) plan at work for my well-being. From an astrological stand-point, I have major Capricorn working throughout my chart and my life (I have Moon in Capricorn, Capricorn was on the rise when I was born and Pluto is in Capricorn for another 13 yrs.). The article below begins with this:

"With Pluto’s recent entry into the sign Capricorn, some of that sign’s most incapacitating qualities have rapidly taken over mass consciousness. Many of us are focusing on fear and repetitive negative thoughts, anticipating the worst, and holding tight to rigid, crystallized strategies that may have worked over the years but won’t serve us in the current crisis. People with important placements in Capricorn (the Sun, Moon, or Ascendant in that sign or several planets there) seem to be feeling it most acutely. Fear and negativity are highly contagious, and so those who live or work with–or especially for–Capricornians are absorbing their anxiety like second hand smoke..."

CLICK HERE for DONNA CUNNINGHAM'S article "The Ultraviolet Jackhammer ... a tool for demolishing negative beliefs"

Astrological Mid-wifery: Uranus is moving direct ... clues for forward movement from the icy planet on an icy morning

Jack Frost and his family are visiting the Pacific Northwest. The single red rose we have smiled at since our arrival is crisp from the freeze ... beautiful still. An ice cake an inch thick, formed on the top of the kitty's water bowl with a decoration of tiny ice trees in a row. Cold air from the North will stick around for several days. Clear skies save for the plumes of sulfur-rich paper mill smoke. Tucked onto the futon with "Ruby" (i have finally named my old lap-top) Mukilteo and Whidbey Island are clear vantage points from the vardo window. JOTS has grow plump and thick-coated during the weeks since our wee home began the road travels from the Ledge. The frost is not her favorite experience so I know she is relishing the pile of warm clothes that is her inside-the-basement cozy spot.

The month of November has been a heavy one. Plenty of endings and passing, lives have passed from the physical to the spirit. Four people ... family members of our friends' who share this Everett with us ... died in November. Our vardo attaches to the energy of the big house, one after another the deaths affected us. Grief is grief, even with the intent to 'take it easy' this emotion is physical and will require expression and avenue of release. Living with multiple chemical sensitivities during this time of grief and passings has been challenging. Practicing setting and maintaining workable physical and emotional boundaries is a daily attempt ... our friends know we love them and must also remain distanced. We are fragile beings at the core of it all, and that is not a weak descriptive I think. Caring for that fragile part of us makes for such strength. We were blessed with days of time with my son who was here for the Thanksgiving holiday. Heart-warming chats with him to learn of his life back on the Island, hearing how he is navigating and shifting at 37 years; hanging out with him eating left-over turkey sandwiches and hot vegetable soup; receiving healing lomi lomi work to break the frozen muscles of toxics and stress.

Focus on the icy planet: Uranus

December began with the planet Uranus going direct after its retrograde. The influence of the icy planet, seventh planet from the Sun, going direct with the full moon (December 1/2, 2009) feels a welcomed relief. I've been studying the charts during the past week and Uranus lit up as a possible clue to my on-going sorting habit as it relates to my life. These posts with the "Astrological Mid-wifery"tags are part of my passionate view of cosmos as reliable translator and one of my classrooms of choice. I'm a student of the art, using it more and more to aid me with these late life births. I celebrated my 62nd birthday in mid-November so I could officially or unofficially be called an old gal. Uranus and the outer planets have lots to say about the way I work, live, play or struggle with these later years.

Here are a few of the tidbits that are inspiring, encouraging, offering me clues to completing the life climb/journey and make the most of the seen and unseen dunnage on offer.

• Uranus was in retrograde when I was born. Uranus was in your sixth house at the time of birth.

This astrological combination indicates that throughout your existence you will undergo rare organic disturbances which may be caused by a negative reception to environmental influences or by nervous stress.

My mind at work: An MCS marker?

• Uranus trine Sun: Hungry for change End of June 2008 until beginning of February 2010

Sometimes it is very upsetting to make fundamental changes in your life. But at other times you feel that change is creative and exciting, and this is one of those times. You are eager for change and hope it will lead you to a life that is more exciting, interesting and alive. You look to new ideas and new experiences for insights that will make your life more real. Consequently this is an excellent time to begin studying disciplines that will allow you to develop and grow as a human being.

My mind at work and mid-wifery in action: This transit began during the summer of building our wee house. In all ways from belief about what home and house means, how we relate to friends, family and strangers, how we make our way in the way, and how we braid, cobble and express ourselves began to change. "Eager for change and hope ..." is what fueled our choice to leave behind the home that had been our souls' dream (we thought). Six months of living on the road, in a car and on the 'run' led us into the influence of Uranus (planet of change, innovation and sudden transformation) upon my Scorpion Sun. This planetary trine continues through the winter ... we will need this influence to balance us especially now that life will require the human collective to live lean, smart and focused.

• Neptune trine Uranus: Enlightening experience End of February 2009 until mid December 2010: This influence will expose you to ways of looking at the world that are quite different from any you have known before.

My mind at work and mid-wifery in practice: Stumbling upon this information gives me a clue about the positive influences of the otherwise reality-bending and watery Neptune. Astrology offers many bits of information about the planetary aides or obstacles (Neptune is also squaring Mars during much of this time making the two transits a subtle act of balancing what I want to have with pacing things during a time when my energy will be low).

• Uranus square Uranus: On a pivot Mid April 2009 until mid March 2010: This influence signifies the changes that take place as you approach old age… You must realize that the richness of your life does not come only from your achievements in the outer world of business and society, but also from what you know and understand about life

My mind at work and mid-wifery in practice: This bit of information satisfies my growing comfort with become kupuna. "...richness of your life does not come only from ... achievements ...also from what you know and understand about life. Once again Uranus began playing out the old values I have held dear (worthiness, ability to earn, standing in the community, the face with which I bring to the world, the stability of my resources) and everything continues to change. We arrived on the Ledge in April, the world of fantasy and writing combined in a special way on that magical Ledge. My writing was fed through the dark-sky of muse dust. The words weren't mine, the messages drew from all the experiences I have had, known and felt in ancestral language. How that will continue to translate as Uranus pivots will be an exciting, inspired journey. I'm not afraid of the square and in fact welcome the potential of increasing comfort with what I have come to call 'reassembling.'

This post has wandered through a full day. Completing it in the darkness of a cold night, it has been a day of resting, working, walking and putting together a curry stew that ought to be ripe for eating in the very near while. Our friend Doug brought a lovely wreath of greens to our encampment. Pete and I hung it on the back of the wee golden wagon. I hope we are able to get a picture of that on the blog this winter season, it looks like home ... and that, is a nice feeling.

Astrology and Navigation from the Vardo

The four nights and days of the 'Ole cycle according the Hawaiian Moon Calendar are pau, and they have been a very important time of review, restoration, rest and weeding our symbolic and real lives. Astrologically, things are happening for all (the collective) on the planet; and personally Pete and I have important issues to review and access from our physical place on the earth ... specifically, our position here in the field with Rescue Horses, barbed wire and our micro-home called VardoForTwo. Our choices, our relationships and the process of creating the life (individually and as a couple) we have is based on the years of choosing, the years of our interactions, and the process of getting ourselves into a very tiny home now parked in a field in Central Oregon. What we are doing is hard stuff, there is nothing (nothing!) easy about it. The four nights and days of the 'Ole cycle have been perfect times to do two important pieces of homework. The reasons for doing them boil down to this:

At the end of October (in two and a half days) Saturn (the planet of discipline, and control) will move into the Cardinal (down to basics) sign of Libra (balance, partnerships) from Virgo. Pluto (planet of birth and re-birth) is already in Capricorn (a cardinal sign). Uranus will shift into Aries (another cardinal sign). Cardinal signs mean we must focus on the things that the cardinal signs mean to humans and human "success" (in whatever form).

Four important questions need to be answered during this time between Saturn's move into Libra:

• WHO ARE YOU? (How do you present yourself to the world?) Astrologically 1st House
  
• WHO IS YOUR TRIBE/CLAN? (How do you define your tribe/family/clan?) Astrologically 4th House
  
• WHO IS YOUR PARTNER(S)? (Who is your romantic partners and who is your solid partner as it relates to the foundations of your life?) Astrologically 7th House
  
• WHAT IS YOUR JOB? Astrologically 10th House

Link: Click below to watch and listen to the video by Elsa P. that explains this 4 question process.

http://www.elsaelsa.com/archives/2009/10/24/1-minute-astrology-how-to-thrive-2009-2010-2011/

Personally, the answers I have come up with to the 4 questions are (The short version):

Who am I? I am an old woman.

Who is my tribe/family/clan? My clan is my son, my husband Pete and my Island heritage and roots.

Who is my partner/partners? Pete is my partner and outside of him my solid partners are those friends who value me and my husband and will support us emotionally and physically with our needs as we age and require specific accommodations relating to the disease of Multiple Chemical Sensitivities. My partners must be people who see healthy boundaries and boundary making as an important value; and we work together to set boundaries and respect them in ourselves and in our relationships.

What is my job? I am a storyteller, a publisher and blog author of life-lessons learned the hard way -- through real life. I am a digger and I will probably make you uncomfortable, confused or inspired with the cracks I discover.


The second piece of homework that I committed to during the past four days was a review and reflection on the past 7 years. Again, Elsa P. is the expert and astrologer who has much more convincing reasons for doing this 7 year review.

Link to the posts below for that information:

http://www.elsaelsa.com/archives/2009/10/27/saturn-leaving-virgo-for-libra-and-thinking-in-terms-of-7-years/
http://www.elsaelsa.com/archives/2009/10/27/trends-in-the-collective-saturn-and-pluto-changing-signs-the-natural-zodiac-vs-the-personal-experience/#more-10601


Pete and I are parked in a field with a dream of building community (11th house stuff astrologically) seriously dissolving into a reality check. Specifically, the check is ... can that dream be done from this field and with this arrangement? Also, before we get any further along (time wise ... winter is here, the passes are more difficult to cross or criss-cross) we need to look at what we have done and how we have done it and with whom have we done these things.

Before we can make progress, we have got to re-check our climbing equipment and look for any cracks in the foundations. There are cracks, so we needed to do the review with careful attention to details. (Virgo things). I spent the entire day yesterday, some of the evening last night reviewing the gains and details of our life(lives) over the past 7 years. The process and the patterns were revealing and then Pete and I went through it together ... more and more was revealed.

We are taking a break from the review as I write. Pete is playing a little solitaire, and then we'll pick up the review again. As I wrote in the beginning of this post, what we are doing is not easy. The past 7 years have been gut-wrenching and the losses have been heavy. Individually and as a couple these two old people have been through hell and back many times. I come to these blog pages and put (some) of these stories on the page. Two people who believe the best option for there life is to build and live in the world from a two-wheeled wagon and ask for 1) clean air 2) chemical free and fragrance free surroundings/and empathetic partnerships 3) physical accommodations that allow and embrace our life(style) require a lot from the world as it exists today.

This 7 year history review has revealed the cracks in our foundations. Like this:

1. Where have I been self-serving in my relationships (selfish and mean) over and over again? If that is a pattern and continues to escalate because now I am sick with this environmental illness, I see it as a crack in my foundation. I have got to do some changing with my relationships. The disease is difficult; but I am seeing that my ability to communicate through the difficulties of the disease/exposures are a vital shoring up process for me going forward.

Saturn is my chart ruler. With Saturn moving into Libra my relationships will be a key work, and it's my job, or Saturn will simply make it more difficult and the struggles will be even more.

Throughout the homework I did I reviewed and reflected on the 7 years with a focus on the areas of life as depicted in Elsa's suggestion to break down the 28 year cycle of Saturn into quadrants (7 years at a time). Link to that post for a visual of the quadrants.

In a nutshell, I reviewed the 7 years with the idea of looking for patterns of
1) effort relative to my family
2) creativity
3) hard work and service

I coupled it with the 4 questions from above. The research and review was legend and like I say Pete and I will pick it up again after I finish this post. Multiple Chemical Sensitivities is gaining in attention especially during the past two years. Bloggers and social networks provide incredible service to those of us who live with this disease. Diagnosing the disease is difficult and yet that is becoming more and more the 'norm' for more and more people who have not understood their experiences of loss/mental debilitation and emotional-social loss. Supportive community through the internet is now providing a different and new level of knowing and care. That is critical because any who live with this illness know, face-to-face support comes with its inherent risks ... even when a person has the best of intentions to support you, an exposure and a set-back is always probable.

What I attempt to do here with VardoForTwo is to offer a different sort of support through our experiences and include the navigational tools I find useful on our journey. Astrology is a concrete cosmic science, and for me, I use it because it offers a broad view. I am grateful to know that at this stage and age, I am able to use astrology as a tool. It is not simple, yet I have found a teacher and a community where I can hybrid my experiences and come up with something useful. All through the years (7 years in particular) of history-making, our personalities have been hard at work for good or ill. That's the thing about living with disease-illness that is chronic and not cured with pill-injection-surgery ... my personality is always part of the recovery, discovery and my choices are affected by the illness and my native personality.

Creating a safe haven community for people with MCS is a difficult goal. Who would know (for sure) until you try. At this point, Pete and I need to reevaluate and try to keep the communication process open while maintaining flexible and real boundaries. Navigation is difficult when the charts don't exist ... and so, I look to the stars and planets for charts that do exist. We made this expedition to Bend, site unseen. It's not the first time, but maybe we have learned something new this time and can look to our history to shore us with the confidence we need to keep believing in the journey. The goals may need changing but that is not a bad thing, especially if the goal has a crack in it.

Saturn moves into Libra at the end of the month. Do you know where the cracks are in your foundation?

Astrology from the Makua O`o ... Jupiter the planet of luck, champion of dreams

Jupiter planet of luck, champion of dreams

Last evening tide, just before the sun set Pete and I took a short drive to make a cellphone call. A roadside spot five miles from the ledge, where a single straight grown fir rising so too do the bar of cellphone service rise. We were calling some pals letting them know we are preparing to venture south and east. These same pals were one of the first stops along the route of friends who had our backs when MCS was disassembling our old whirls. The pals weren't at home when we call, so we left a message.

In place of chatting with those friends we were blessed with a sun set and a moon rise of Harvest Luck. Last night's Harvest Moon was fully present, though not yet in her full illumination because at the same time in the west the sun was electrifying the sky. A very busy and bristly common brown squirrel bounced on the branches of a wild huckleberry outside Scout's window. The squirrel was oblivious to us, with much more important things to do for sure. What Pete and I count as a lucky break is the dual kick of moon and sun as a celebration blessing for all the hard work we have invested in the journey to create a life from Kolea Nani.

Jupiter has been brilliant in the night sky for weeks. This is the planet of expansion, luck and also considered the champion of dreams. Our home on two wheels was born from dreams. Jupiter plays prominently in my natal astrology with the planet of dreams parked at birth in my 11th house, the house where hopes and dreams, visions and connection live... this is a double whammy of dreaming as a source of knowing for me. I posted the article about the difference between learning and knowing yesterday. It was a way for me to put thoughts on the wall that I know ... a faith-based activity. The gift of a sunset and moonrise simultaneously are Jupiter and sun and moon together an indicator of dreams coming true.

We are packing up Kolea Nani and heading for the pass. We are going to Oregon to join our MCS friends in the next stage of community building. It's been a process of back and forth, ups and downs just like that common brown squirrel, we have been preparing for winter!

It's a 9 out of 10 win-win situation:

1. It's sunny. (light is important for Island people!)
2. We're being welcomed. (thank you!)
3. Our friends 'get' what MCS is about. (one of them lives with MCS)
4. It's dry.
5. There's electrical hook-ups for both pairs.
6. The air is clean.
7. There's work for us to do there. (our friends build tiny safe homes!)
8. It's affordable. (we can share resources)
9. We help our friends build the shared kitchen and bathroom we both need for winter.

What's missing? Heat, so Pete will have to wear socks and maybe something more than shorts. The ocean. ( just three hours away).

We started this search in July, and we're new to this kind of search. It is kinda new because we know more than when we were trying to outrun the environment. We know MCS exists and we know what things/experiences/chemicals/actions cause it. That makes the search a conscious one. The astrology of our search does include the influences of ancient wisdom that goes beyond learning and that's the influence I like to call "Earth Sourcery and Cosmic Wisdom." This life of our from Kolea Nani is all about learning and knowing. My Hawaiian tradition led me to remember that the practice of such earth sourcery and cosmic wisdom was passed along with 9 life tools. I'll end this post with those tools and give thanks to my ancestors for passing them to me.

We have our friends here who have shared their ledge with us to thank for their willingness to and generosity. It has counted for much, and we hope we have shared equally in the process.

What are the basic life tools of Makua O`o?

1. Keep a keen sense of observation … NOTICE
2. Listen … with your whole body … LISTEN RESPECTFULLY
3. Do your best in all things … BELIEVE YOUR BEST IS ENOUGH.
4. Know that wisdom is found in many places … SOFTEN THE GROUND OF YOUR BEING
5. Question for clarity when making decisions … ASK
6. Practice patience and endurance … TIMING IS DIVINE
7. Engage in good health practices … CARE
8. Feel the heartbeat of the culture … SENSE YOUR PLACE
9. Believe in Ke Akua, for this higher power makes all life possible … WE ARE NEVER ALONE

Where is Jupiter in your chart? Do you count yourself lucky?

(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

Astrology from the Vardo: LIBRA MATTERS ... MANNERS MATTER

The sun is in the sign of Libra and has been since September 22, just after the Equinox when the Earth has equal exposure to the sun and moon ... equal parts dark and light. I have just spent time visiting some of my other ether-spots thanks to my trusty laptop. I've opened up my email and found a sweet communication from a nearly-lost connection with a treasured daughter, linked yesterday's MOON, MOON HARVEST MOON post to The Canary Report Group 'Eyes on the Sky' and got my first dose of ElsaElsa astrological heads-up for the day.

Late last night before climbing under the covers I was hit with one of those toxic influences that is sometimes impossible to avoid. Rather than a chemical hit from a caustic drain opener or the neighbor's BBQ or drier sheet, toxic influences can come from words or images of threat or maligning. The issue of the insensitive and ignorant commentary about our outside kitchen living came up, again, just before I was pulling the sheets over my head. That's the risk of sharing the laptop in the confines of a micro space. Pete was net surfing and hit that submerged rock (surfers will know the anology ... know where the rocks are before you catch the wave)Short story ... the toxic hit affected both of us, again and opened a wound.

To defend and calm myself so I could open to the peace of a healing night of sleep, I asked Pete to please leave the issue for the night, let us sleep on it and take no action. Grace did come to us, I slept and was granted a gentle and healing dream. There's no need to be explicit, for those who read here, you know that I am a Hawaiian dreamer with the ability to receive deep insight through the dream. I am thankful the gods bless me with that vehicle.

After my first cup of three-leaf tea (three fresh sprigs of our pepppermint) and sunflower nut butter on toast I began my morning rounds of the net ... , I went to work. Or more astrologically, Libra had found a way to work within me. The sun is in the sky of Libra the balance-maker. I am blessed with a Libra Sun son and Pete the Cancer Moon Man is also a Moon in Libra Native. When Pete and I went to sleep our sense of security was thin: we have no next place to be for the winter, our welcome is wearing thin, and the toxic commentary from that other blog was weighing too heavily on the scale. The dream of balance that came for me, and the Libra Moon that is Pete's native moon of birth have blessed us with the grace of knowing this today: MANNERS MATTER.

An old article reposted on ElsaElsa.com today was the astrology that offers this old goat (Capricorn moon) the next ledge to leap upon. Living with MCS makes us angry a lot. There are so many incidents that can easily goad the goat in me or amp up the Scorpio Sun energy of distrust and amputation. Normally, Pete and I will find a balance and the courage to transcend adverse situations. But the thing is 'what is normal'? And, new normal changes regularly. Elsa's blog and the commentary that began a while ago, continued today and it was about LIBRA: quotes from Libra notables and celebs and thoughts from the collective who visit Elsa's place.

This clip from that article and commentary thread includes a few quotes from Oscar Wilde, a fine Libra Native. These made me laugh at my self, and I share them here (thanks Spidermoon)

Always forgive your enemies - nothing annoys them so much.
I am so clever that sometimes I don’t understand a single word of what I am saying.
I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.
I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.
It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious...

So what do I get from the Libra energy that is present in the sky and here for all to draw on?

1. Manners matter. I will need friends and allies, and will need to learn to play fair.
2. I can't afford to burn bridges at my age. My life is full enough as it is, and the energy I do have must be directed with aloha.
3. Choose my battles. Period.
   
4. Saturn will move into Saturn at the end of October, and if I haven't learned manners, I'll get more chances for a good long while. Saturn will be in Libra for weeks or months. Yikes! Saturn plays heavily in my chart so I will be watched.

Do manners matter in your world?





Photo: The Golden Scales from Wiki Public Domain

NEW ASTROLOGY GROUP: Eyes on the Sky

I've started a new group for Canaries (folks living with MCS) who are interested in learning or sharing what they know about astrology. The group has just begun, so if you're interested click on the link below, sign in or sign up to be part of The Canary Report and join in.

Like I said, more and more I will focus on using astrology as a navigational tool related to my life and our experiences with MCS. Every bit of the journey is important, and living with and/or recovery from the effects of environmental illness calls on wisdom from all sources ... seen and unseen. In the weeks and months to come VARDOFORTWO will evolve into something new ... the whole of it is yet to be, so just keep coming back. Storytelling will always have a place here, and fairy tales, and cosmic wisdom including the silly and serious are welcome to join us.

M.

Link:
http://thecanaryreport.ning.com/group/eyesonthesky

More Astrology & MCS from the Vardo: Pairing Up and Pairing Down

Aloha,

If you've been visiting our place in the while, you may be getting the drift of things changing up here at Vardo For Two and if you're new here (welcome~welina) hope you choose to stay awhile. As Pete and I shuffle and deal out the cards of our life, learning to play this new ECONOMY OF WEE, the rules are difficult to follow ... because in so many ways the rules that have worked in Earth's collective past aren't working now. When you live full-time from a paired-down version of home with an illness that challenges 99% of the collective norm there is bound to be a whole lot of shaking going on even with the best of intentions.

I've begun to fill more and more blog space with navigational tools that are working for me because I think a combination of tools are going to be necessary for all of us mortals as old systems of 'stability'(stock markets, banking systems, money, real estate... all the large and bigger the betters beliefs) fragment. Astrology is one of those navigational tools that has served me very, very well over the span of my forty plus adult years (the twenty years before ... what were those pre-adult?) Perched on the futon-punee of our micro-home, I'm pouring down a few lessons from the sky that seem important as we navigate from KEIA (this place) to KELA (that place). Old friends (that would be you JT) will notice this recurring theme of getting from here to there. This hasn't changed in more than twenty years. I have wandered Earth seeking understanding. Living with MCS isn't so much different as it is more intense and there is less room for creative denial. Facts are facts: I wander and I wonder.

Late yesterday... Mercury (the planet of communication, technology, interactions) is now direct. From the view here on Earth that celestial body is tracking in the same direction, no longer appearing to be traveling in the reverse direction. This happened yesterday, so communications are more direct and what you see/hear is more real than not. Examples of this Mercury going direct, for these two Water Sun Signs are showing up in the communications with people who could become our partners and allies or our 'Pair Up'; and as we prepare to leave the Ledge, the communication shift is showing up between the friends who have shared their space with us for the past six months.

I'm new at putting down my astrological translation onto the blog ... so stay with me, or dog paddle. I hope our experiences will be valuable (and I know it helps for me to see the process in print). I mentioned in a post just a few days ago the fact that we had a couple options for winter space in our IN BOX, and we were sitting on the offer waiting for a bit more energy and clarity to refuel us from the scouting already done. Well, yesterday we kicked in the next exchanges of communication (with Mercury direct now!) and here is what we found. Our newest potential for space is on the drier side of the Pacific Northwest, Central Oregon. After our recent whirlwind trip to the Central Oregon coastline where mold settles into your clothes in the summer, and lingers in your hair just any ole time we decided it wouldn't work for us or the vardo. Moldy folk and a moldy vardo = Swamp City and we can not live that! Okay, with a couple pretty good nights of sleep I woke early yesterday and composed a reply to our potential ally living in Central Oregon.

I write this (paraphased),

"We'd like to come for a scouting trip. If that works for you, and the double doozie of a forrest fire blazing just south of you is contained, we'd like to check out the possibilities."

Do you track the big natural phenomenon that is making its presence known in the area we're thinking might be a good winter space? Yup, fire (Leo) is making his presence very direct as I write, with forrest fires south of Eugene Oregon with EPA readings the other day of double what is considered 'dangerous.'

Our ally responds later that day,

"Great. I think we'd best talk about things that have come up that I think we'd best talk about rather than email. If it's not too much to ask can we talk tonight or tomorrow."

Hmmm. My Capricorn Moon says to my Scorpio Sun who is already on near red alert. I paused, didn't reply right away and sought out my Cancer Sun-Libra Moon Man.

When I told him about the email sitting on the laptop he said,

"Sure, tonight would be great. We can drive into town, go find a place to get cellphone connection."

I'm glad to have a partner who can see a different view, and his Libra Moon calms the love-hate relationship my Capricorn Moon has with power. I don't let my red-light emotions out to him yet. There are often too extreme, so I accept the option for a phone conversation later in the evening and email that decision to our ally.

There's one clue here in the communication that needs to be added to the process. "We can drive into town." Our regular readers know our cellphones don't work on the Ledge, cellphones work if we drive into town or hunt for a clear spot. The clue here is ... it will be dark when we leave the ledge, the park in town is gated off at dusk. Why couldn't we just use the lan-line in the big house across the driveway? Answer: the drain plugged up and the decision to buy and use DRANO to clear the bath-tub happened while we were food shopping yesterday afternoon surprised us.

Communication is more direct now, and if a person's nature style is passive and aggressive it will show up VERY DIRECT. Caustic chemicals are death for me. Refraining from using chemicals and fragrances and wood smoke were changes that our friends who share their land were willing to implement while we lived here on the Ledge. What's become very clear is it's time of us to move on. Old patterns are entrenched and pouring DRANO into the plumbing ... a chemical to clear the lines, was our latest clue. Fortunately, Pete and I were warned that the chemical had been used and stayed away from the house over night.

Back to the potential ally conversation. Pete headed out with me in the co-pilot seat. It was dark, fortunately it wasn't raining and we found a stretch of road where the cellphone worked pulled over and dialed. Within thirty minutes we got the direct scoop.

SURPRISE ONE

• Space #1 with plenty of acreage has a second pair of folks who were 'surprised and not overly thrilled' with the possibility of having two pair of strangers living in the big house through the winter.

SURPRISE TWO

• 'a second pair of folks' burns wood for winter heat

REALITY ONE

• We would not have a bathroom or kitchen at either of the space options in Central Oregon

REALITY TWO

• We will wait to visit Central Oregon until after the forest fires are under control(and that is maybe mid-October)
  

REALITY THREE

• Here on the Ledge our welcome is wearing thin. The Taurus Native is digging in to his turf and doesn't talk about things, he just does things now. It's a harsh reality and a reality I have been learning time and time again as I relate to the Bulls in my life. Winter brings the harshness of hunkering down in your place. I think everybody and all signs feel that. What is clear with Mercury going direct again is the willingness to make changes can only go so far -->. Our needs and boundaries intensified with MCS, test friendships and test native instinct. I'm perched on the punee using the navigational tool of writing and astrology because they are my allies ... internal allies that serve me. Once I step out into the whirl, there will be more to know, more cards to play, a new deal.

Pairing Up is a mantra that will serve me, Pete and the mortal collective in small and huge ways during the time the Pluto is in Capricorn and Saturn is in Libra. There are lots of articles and info on the net to read for all who are open to those ideas and practical tools. For now, the story posted here is a way for me to nourish my own Capricorn Moon who is scared shi=**less that I will be without a safe home. I put the story down here so I don't carry it around while I scale the mountain that fragments beneath me. Pairing up with allies is important because no one will make it through the fragments with some one (s) to watch your back, help pay the bills, comfort you when you're broken or off-balance when the swirl is over.

We keep keeping on doing and being what we know we can and believe our best is enough. Where it isn't enough we will truly need to call on Grace, Faith, Ke Akua, Na Aumakua(our Fairy Godmothers and Godfathers) and the ancestors to help us out.