Shifts and Changes at Vardo For Two ... tell me something new

We're making some changes here. 

The focus of the blog and the writing will evolve. Pete will be doing more and more of the writing, and posting of photos (he's working on the camera and computer) . I'll keep my Al-Anon posts-journal newly begun, as a way to work my program of recovery as a way to 'be in the Rooms.' My Astrology posts will continue, too. These two forms of 'superpower' save my life over the long haul, so I'll keep coming back to writing these types of posts/articles.


More of my attention will shift to writing and creating fertile ground over at my writer's blog It's All Compost. Thanks to the process of blogging, living and learning here at VardoForTwo, I have fueled myself with enough healing to focus on writing for a living, again. In a new and composted version of myself, It's All Compost will take the fertile ground made here to plant new seeds of writing and sharing.

To read the whole story about our Shifts and Changes please go to the side-bar "Shifts and Changes"

Tell us, is there something new and exciting in your life today?
 

Success! Pages on the side-bar

Progress, progess, progress.  There are two new pages on the sidebar now, and new content will slow be linkage through the pages.  It's SuperBowl Sunday in America, and Pete's gone to cheer The Packers on.  I'm loving the small changes to be made here on the blog, and cook'n up some supper to warm my tummy.

Oh, I was chatting over at  Planet Thrive on Friday night for the first time in a year.  What fun that was.



While there I heard (AND REMEMBER!) this joke:

Definition of The 'SUPER BOWL'?
Answer:  Bowl for Superman's gold fish

Silly, funny, just my kinda goofy and a joke I remembered.

What's for dinner at your house?  SuperBowl fan?

Let the sun shine in ... Aquarius dawning ... revolution, evolution

The view from the Quonset window is a stand of tree skins streaked with light.  Sun.  The morning is cold and clear. I was up earlier this morning, and came into a very cool cooking hut.  JOTS was huddled by the heater and ready to escape the premises for her natural duties. My thoughts were swhirling thinking about my family back on O'ahu. We are gathering our energy to aid in the healing of one of our dearest, and it's important for one like me who absorb energy at such deep levels to attend to what is 'mine' and maintain connection without collapse. All easier said than done, but it counts to pay attention ...

I checked in with Elsa in time to attend to the stellium of planets congregating in Aquarius.  Here's what she had to say: (click on the link to read the whole post)

The Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Neptune and Ceres all gather in Aquarius on February 3, 2011. This is on the heels of the new moon the day before. Talk about a revolution!

There is a nice wrinkle here in that Saturn (ruler of Aquarius) is in in the sign of it’s exaltation, Libra, which trines Aquarius.


I see this as an extraordinary opportunity. To take advantage, note the house where the stellium falls in your chart and brainstorm how you can innovate and liberate yourself or others as it relates to that house.

The stellium of planets in Aquarius will be in my 1st House.  The Aquarius party will be in Pete's 5th House.

 Dana Gerhardt at Astro.com offered this for our 1st and 5th House Brainstorming:(Click on the link for the complete articles, and more about the houses that might trigger brainstorming of your own.)

The 1st House

..."Writing about the 1st house, astrologer Dane Rudhyar stresses the need to separate yourself from its early influences, the personal, social and cultural conditioning that mothered you.4 The work of the 1st house is to keep birthing yourself, which means to keep separating, to keep honoring what’s different about you... it’s about accepting the gift of being distinct. On a deeply spiritual level we may recognize we’re all one, interconnected and interdependent. Yet it’s also true that the whole does its most productive and creative work through individuals. When you embrace your individuality, you come closer to fulfilling your destiny. You gain access to more inner resources. You become more authentically formed.

The 5th House

"Within your 5th house lives a wild spirit too. It wants to shake up your sleepy life. It wants to stimulate your ecstasy for being in the moment ...It is well known that when transits or progressions energize the 5th house, people do uncharacteristic things. They have affairs. They buy flashy new cars. They dream of running away to the circus. They behave, in short, like children... There is vital life force energy in the 5th house. When the emotional life is thus nurtured, power gathers. There is energy to create. Or procreate. There is enthusiasm for life. One is vibrant and radiant... "

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.

Not yet time for hitch-up

We aimed at getting VARDOFORTWO sleep ready and prepared for hitch-up today. We are giving ourselves more time. Pete's framing the door, I'm prepping the sewing supplies (washing in milk and baking soda) for the wall coverings. We both have little colds, so I slow down and Pete ... well, I bake him a batch of barley bread for mid-afternoon, he drinks more peppermint time to keep warm and keeps going. There's always more than you think ... The good news is we have a place to BE while we prepare to hitch-up and that means this move is a change from the survival-only mode a year ago. Progress not perfection. Wish us luck.

Cheers. Mokihana

A HEALTH OPPORTUNITY

Dear Friends,

When I made the change to the look of our blog here at VARDOFORTWO I wrote about the need to move things around, like I had done in homes with foundations attached to the Earth. I chose a different template after 100 posts, and now there is this gentle green background, like a coat of fresh 'none-stinky' paint. My instinct to move things is hot wired into me, and I've nurtured it with learning and practicing the ancient art of Feng Shui as I understand it. I used my usual re-view and reflection times during the last `Ole Days and added a day to consider what is happening with me. Things in my life was changing -- my body symptoms are different, perhaps in response to the movement of 'things' like the change in the blog background, and the shift in energy I use to keep the posts written. Perhaps there are additional influences. At any rate, I know my attention is needed.

Today I read an article and interview by Jenny Mannion. It has been a while since I'd been to her website. Like the small changes to the blog, that interview has reinforced the actions I'm taking; my shift in focus. "I'm taking time for a health opportunity." I read that quote in the article and it immediately ring my bell (not the ringing in my ears). That is JUST what I'm doing now. My body, mind and spirit are asking for my attention. After reading Jenny's interview I felt a clear and positive GOOD NEWS SIDE to my body's messages.

So, as you come to visit VARDOFORTWO please know the posts may be sporadic or shorter for a time, how much time? I'm not sure. Some projects have slowed, but oh there's a whole lot of shak'n going on. For more on Jenny's interview please click here, it might be the sort of good news you're after. My daily musings and ponderings go on over at Makua O`o as well, with space for silent retreat and spiritual reflection. If you like, the week-ends at Makua O`o offer a place to comment and share your own spiritual musings.

Thanks for being here to share the journey, Mokihana