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.

Measure of success

Capricorn was raising on the horizon when a wee girl, not quite ready for the journey was called to begin life here on Earth.  "Pre-mature" by modern science terms the girl was pulled from the dark inkly womb only to learn over time, that all human babies are 'pre' mature and that all of us need months if not years of further nurturing to be as ready as the tiny deer who suckle with weak yet ready stick-like legs.  I was born when the zodiac would call my Sun position, "Scorpio" and my Moon Capricorn so with the Ascendent sign also Capricorn the journey would be purpose-filled, the track lined with hurdles of all sorts and the lessons of persisting emphasized in the arena of shared resources, re-births, deaths and inheritance/legacy.  In the brief view, this is the legacy I live with.  Re-births come often if one looks at the challenges from the point of view that life comes from the dark and contractions prepare for the forward motion and contraction can be painful. 

In many ways our Wee Life living in and from the VardoForTwo has been a series of contractions-- slow down and becoming more and more conscious of the visceral, remembering what labor is without sedation.  A few days ago I had one of those precious conversations with my son.  I told him giving birth to him was the hardest work I have ever done and the most satisfying work I've ever done.  He will be 38 at his next birthday, and at the time we talked telling him that seemed divine direction.  Pete and I are living close to Nature again, and divinity has a more direct line to us here in the forrest.  I have offered our gifts of presence to the fairies (chocolate covered raisins) and they have taken all five treats just as the Solstice welcomed more light! 

It matters that each success be recognized and as life continues to change for us the successes and failures mute. What does the farmer with the magic flute say after he has played music for his hens hoping to coax them into more eggs, yet finds no more eggs than usual?  "Ah, yes.  It was a grand day for making music!"
Yesterday we had many successes. 

Pete finished building the salvage yard sink, and last night we had running water to wash with.

Visitors have begun to show up on our stoop and in our kitchen.  Our neighbors and friends who rent space to us have begun to invite others to visit, and visit with us themselves.  They are fragrance-free and appreciate the life we live from the vardo.  Those two things make visitors the welcome presents we have prayed for.

A potluck gathering happened yesterday as well.  New to us folk brought drink and food to the patio-deck just across the duck yard, and we sat to eat, share stories and listen to other stories.  I learned that animals other than cats and dogs are very much part of the lives of the folk on Whidbey.  "There's always something dying ..."  Now hear out of context perhaps that snip of conversation would seem odd.  It wasn't though and was instead just part of what happens in the woods where predator and prey includes everyone.  Pete helped put a door on the cobbled house for the ducks that are our neighbors.  Two of the ducks have been snatched late at night by a creature a bit further up the food chain.  It pleases both Pete and our land-ladies to see how handy a screw gun and saw can be to make country life easier for the folk.

Folk with Capricorn rising know that life is learned through repeating a lesson over and over again.  Instead of all else, the school of life requires accepting the assignment hurdles and all.  Our successes make life a bit easier, like putting a door on the chicken and duck houses .or building a sink at standing up level with water that runs through a tap.  How many days have I misjudged as failure when in fact, it was probably a grand day for making music.