Crones, Crows and Capricorn ... wisdom learned sooner or later ... help with New Year's Resolutions

Moon Snatcher by Rob Schouten

The crow, a trickster hero in many mythologies, is often full of surprises and contraditions.  In this painting crow gets to the core of (the) matter, represented by the winter apple containing the universe, and extracts the moon, symbol of fertility and renewal.

Dutch artist Rob Schouten paints visionary images that evoke a sense of mystery and the sacred.  He lives on Whidbey Island, WA.  Moon Snatcher, the beautiful image reproduced here, is the Winter Season card we sent to friends and family this Winter of 2010.  Rob has generously given me permission to reprint it here on the blog.  Please link to his gallery here:  http://www.robschoutengallery.com/

JOTS and I are back on the slantboard working at piecing together a post.  The dripping rain is heavy.  Wet spots are showing up on the yurt-like tenting that is our latest form of insulation across the top of the quonset.  On a good day or night, the quilt has added to the warmth of our kitchen bringing the temperature up to nearly 68 degrees when I am cooking up a kettle of hot water or simmering a pot of steaming hot food or a pot of delicious Pink Madagascar rice.

Yesterday the three days and nights of the 'ole cycle of the Hawaiian Moon Calendar ended, and as is my practice I use that time to regroup and review life as we know it.  This morning I walked into the quonset and took a turn around the internet, and checked with some of my favorite sights of astrological insight.  I visited Elsa P. Auntie Moon and Cafeastrology and found gleanings of worth for my day.  From Elsa I was reminded to make use of the Jupiter-Uranus conjuction that was been offering lightening speed inspiration and opportunity to all during the summer, and through the first part of 2011.  The link to Elsa's posts about Jupiter and Uranus conjunct are here if you'd like to catch up and make use of the late (but NOT too late) energy of that window of opportunity. 

Auntie Moon, CJ Wright has two very timely posts that fueled me this morning.  Both posts were angles on Saturn:  the first was a post about looking to the transit of Saturn (where Saturn is now in your astrological chart).  Where Saturn transits (the House where Saturn is now) on your chart will give you clues as to where you really must attend to things in your life.  Saturn is the long-term teacher who never forgets and will use all the lessons in the books to give you opportunities to change/grow and make thing right.  CJ's post is as are so many of her articles, practical, grounded and licked with humor.  CJ's second article on Saturn is a three-part series that views The Saturn Return (approximately every 28 years in a person's life,) as a three -part play.  I was especially interested in Part III ... the Crone Year's because that is where I find myself today and I've been here for a number of years now. 

Here's part of what CJ Wright has to say about Part III The Second Saturn Return, the Crone Years:

We’ve been confused by Mercury’s words and sorted it out. We’ve fallen for plenty of Venus’ temptations and held on to the best of them. Mars pushed us into doing things we thought we weren’t capable of accomplishing, but did. Jupiter showed us that the horizon stretches further than we could have ever imagined, sometimes bringing us a little luck along the way. Uranus shocked us and we survived, gaining wisdom and moxie through upheaval. Neptune duped us on more than one occasion bringing compassion to naiveté, and Pluto showed us a way out of the dark corners that held us captive. Chiron comforted us with balm for our birth wound.

And Saturn?

Saturn was always there ~ always the teacher, always the coach. The people and things that surround us at our second Saturn return are our rewards for our good work, for fighting the good fight.


At the onset of our second Saturn return, we are sustaining. The foundation was laid long ago, the walls stand steady and squared, the roof is solid around this life that has, indeed, been worth living.


We start asking ourselves that crucial third act question ~ how will it end?


If you are dissatisfied with some aspect of your life, your second Saturn return offers you the opportunity to give it another go. The Teacher is with you, if you’re up for the task. It’s a second chance to make it right. Through careful chart analysis or in the hands of a seasoned astrologer, you can find the guidance needed to move you in the right direction.


LINK here for cj wright's entire post.  http://auntiemoon.wordpress.com/2010/12/15/saturn-act-iii-crone-days/

WISDOM Learned sooner or later ... help with New Year Resolutions

Over time, Saturn (which is ruler of Capricorn) has been at first a force to which I had no knowledge and when I did learn about Saturn's role as every present teacher, I wrestled with him and lost for more years than I care to admit.  Thing is though, the years of living with MCS (multiple chemical sensitivities) have been the years of making friends and making peace with this teacher. In the form of a teacher that would not go away I am learning "(to) find the grace to love my deepest vulnerabilities--the person behind the mask of the teacher." With Capricorn Moon and my ascendant in Capricorn this lesson is perhaps one of my greatest Saturn opportunity.  I've written posts crediting the counsel of Elizabeth Rose Campbell author of the book Intuitive Astrology for insight into my journey to date.  During the early hours of the evening yesterday, I picked up Intuitive Astrology and was given this bolt of inspiration and a window of opportunity . 

"It's commitment to character that Capricorn (Saturn) seeks to breed, an appreciation for what is good and strong, with faults falling away on their own, in their own time...

To Encourage Intuitive Flow for Capricorn ... Play with Capricorn ... Imagine that before you entered this life you went through training with a teacher who was the best of the best at a particular focus, and who loved you like a son or daughter...What did this teacher train you to cultivate and grow?  Do you remeber the part of the training that reinterated;  Try and fail a hundred times, rathan than playing too small, repeating what you have already perectly mastered?  Pass on trust in life-long learning, through the flow" - Elizabeth Rose Campbell, Intuitive Astrology

Saturn transits my 9th House in Libra for the next while.  The 9th House is the arena of life philosophy, the world view and broad band of experience, knowledge and wisdom.  It is place where the teacher has windows of opportunity to be open-minded and teachable, reachable and adaptive in all ways.  To be closed to new ideas, or rigid about what I believe is to challenge Saturn and at this stage there really is no challenging that teacher.  For me as a makua o'o (elder with tools) I see that I have room yet to learn.  Accepting and embracing the reality that trying new things, being in new places and teaching new things IS path:  LIFE-LONG LEARNING and chronicalling the journey (through my writing and blogging) is 'it.' Natally, Saturn was conjunct in tight aspect with Mars in the 8th House Leo.  Dramatically, my lessons have been to stop fighting change and learn to accept and embrace change rather than attempt to control or prevent change.  I would say the years of life with MCS have taught me that I must continue to attend to the details of finances. (Also an 8th House issue)  It does matter that I settle that check book and spend the time doing it routinely.  We are not bankrupt.  We are however, learning to live on skinny resources and like CJ Wright has reminded me, "skinny" is a Saturn word, and I need to embrace the hunger of lean to get this lesson of finances and resources. 

If you're interested in reading more about Saturn in the Houses here's a link that I found useful:  http://www.cafeastrology.com/articles/saturninhouses.html
So, I think I have my clues for focus and resolve for 2011 ... thanks to Saturn the crone-maker. 

And crows?

These are members of a grand society of watchers and teachers with memories as equally long as Saturn.  They have been a follower of our journey with a particular interest in my man, Pete.  Crows have a very distinctive facility for remembering faces, and it seems they pass that facility down to their kin, and their young.  Wherever we have travelled the crows show up to greet Pete usually sooner than later.  It helps that we are open-minded to the many messages and messengers who fly in our windows of opportunity.  Crow is the tricker and meddler who is unafraid to be messy and definitely capable of unlikely resolutions, and is very handy with tools.  I like to think of Crow as a Capricorn Ally, resolute and capable as well as funny they teach me to remain handy with tools.

If you have stuck it out through this winding tale, I hope there was something worth your time in it all.

The Moon and The Time of Wee

Mahina is becoming fuller and brighter every evening, and is nearly as present during the day as she is when the sky is absent of the sun. It will be a full moon on New Year's Eve, and a Blue Moon to boot. That means December and the year 2009 cycles around with a lot of potential. Life from the vardo continues to teach Pete and me to appreciate what is important. The internal work we must do to keep aware of the successes in our wee life is fueled by the energy I receive because I tune to the energy of the moon. Second hand light is different from the brightness of the Sun and yet without it I would miss the nurturing messages that are needed to steady myself from the glaring differences that are a life based on this Economy of Wee. It is important to document the truth of the challenges and the victories of life reassembled by exposure to chemicals. Bloggers are having an incredibly powerful influence of what I'm calling 'second hand light' ... transparency of truth is showing itself everywhere. I take to the word and write a variety blogs because there are so many ways to tell our story. In October of 2008, Susie Collins' author and editor of The Canary Report contributed an article for Blog Action Day. I've clipped excerpts from Susie's article to frame the reality of thousands who live with the everyday challenges of life with Multiple Chemical Sensitivities. From that article, Collins' wrote:

The aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion. Blog Action Day 08’s topic is POVERTY. Here is my contribution.

Coping with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity is a challenge on every front in a person’s life. It impacts employment, housing, social activity, personal relationships, personal care, eating habits, exercise, recreation, and leisure. Health care becomes confusing and disorienting because medical doctors do not recognize MCS and therefore do not know how to help. To add insult to injury, some MDs believe MCS is psychosomatic, and either dismiss complaints or send the patient off to the shrink...

But a cure for MCS is most likely going to be elusive. After all, MCS is not a disease or allergy, it’s a reaction to low level poisoning from toxic chemicals...

So you can see how MCS can catapult a person into poverty. When forced to leave employment because the air is too toxic to breathe, there is no paycheck...And a life on that edge can very quickly spiral into poverty...

This is why too many people with MCS are sleeping in cars or in aluminum trailers in a friend’s back yard. Many who can’t find safe housing or employment hunker down, strip down, go zen, go without, and struggle to adapt to the newfound state of limited resources. This is the world of poverty, and if anyone with MCS thinks this scenario isn’t a heartbeat away, they are fooling themselves. There is no safety net for people with a health condition not recognized by the government or mainstream medical community...

The Canary Report was one of the first places I turned when Pete and I arrived in Seattle after our months of living on the road, in our car. Through the early connection with the growing community of MCSers I learned more about this condition that had changed our lives. Since that initial cyber-connection, The Canary Report has become broader and bigger with an active voice as well as a safe place for seekers of information, comfort and a collective sense of being supported. And VardoForTwo both the blog and our tiny home teach us how important it is to make friends with time and make time for the moon. As Mahina grows in her illumination with the double-whammy of the Blue Moon I'd like to leave a few of the things we do as a result of "strip(ping down, go(ing) zen, and go(ing) without" not as a form of adaptation to a new version of our former way of being in the world. Instead, the Time of Wee has given us valuable insight and preparation for a future coming up very soon when stripping down, going zen and going without will be THE way.

Here are two things we do on a common day or night from VardoForTwo.

Dental Care.

Oil-swishing or oil-pulling and baking soda brushing.

One of the first things to go when your income and your savings are done, is health care insurance and dental care period. Early in the year, we chose food and gas money over health insurance. When I had my last dental check-up with a dentist who was mcs-sensitive and responsive, I was able to pay for the teeth cleaning and initial exam, got sick from the x-ray and from the estimate for the work she out-lined. There is no way for us to pay for the replacement work or the bridges she recommended. Instead, almost ten months ago I began swishing with organic sunflower oil as a way to cleanse the bacteria from my teeth, mouth and gums. I was brushing with unscented coconut oil soap until a couple months ago, when I became sensitized to the soap. So now, I use a very diluted water brushing with baking soda. My NAET practitioner recommended this as an alternative to the dental work I could not afford.

I swish with oil first thing in the morning and last thing at night. The theory and concept for the swishing is here ... I continue to do it because it calms the sensitivities in my teeth, draws the bacteria from my mouth and offers me an alternative I can afford. It's something I can do, doesn't harm me and that matters to my sense of taking care of myself. There may come a time when more needs to be done to care for my teeth. That's not now.

Clothes and shoes

The clothes I own fits in a wire basket under the futon or on the walking stick I use for a clothes hanger in the corner of the vardo. Pete has a wire basket too plus the basement in our friends' home where he keeps his 'for work' clothes purposely separate from the safe haven of our vardo. A pile of five sweaters has just come into Pete's life ... recycled into his life from our friend Doug. The sweaters will need to be washed and aired clear. They have a minimal scent to them, so that is promising news.

I wash my clothes in the shower. The laundry in our friends' home isn't safe for me, so I spend a couple hours two or three times a week hand washing with hot filtered water and baking soda. It's meditative, really good exercise and becomes a routine: when I'm down to one change of clothes, it's time to wash. Drying my wet clothes takes two days, so that's where the planning is essential. Dryers don't work for me. Pete can use the washer up stairs. He dries his clothes on a large metal rack claimed from the old Bon Marche before it became Macy's Department Store. Tonight, a box came for us. It was a gift from my son. The Wonder Washer, a hand washer that I will be able to use to go from shower washing to pressure washing. No electricity just churning and then hand wringing the wet clothes.

We each own a pair of boots. My New Balance boots are trustworthy and serve me well after five years. Pete has a new pair of boots and two muck- abouts that keep him going. It's not a lot, it's just enough.

Support systems

Safety nets for folks living with MCS are hard won. Friends and family are tested to their limits to offer what we truly need. With our VardoForTwo the comfort and assurance of a separate space is a valuable reality. Our friends here in the Mill Town are making the adjustments to their daily life while continuing to use chemicals and fragrances. We adjust. We do not adapt to the choices because that would not be a boundary it would be losing the seed of myself that must remain true to my needs. That is a big challenge ... seeing that adjusting is different from adapting. I have written about that many times and continue to see the value of making adjustments without adapting. Like frogs who estivate to weather a change in climate, the frog does not become something else, the frog draws into itself and allows the body temperature to function until the climate changes back.

With each new encampment Pete and I learn a little or a lot about what it takes to live with others. We learn that this Time of Wee is as much about riding the wave ahead of the collective, pioneering in a fashion. We are living in the light of the moon with less stuff than most, and more challenges than the majority for now. The coming time of Pluto's occupany in the constellation of Capricorn will test more of the collective to live with Wee. Stripping down and going zen or going without are not bad practices. In fact, with practice they will become to way more of Earth's people will need to live to shift with the cosmic gears.

Can you relate to the need to estivate or zen down?

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"

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.