on strange tides and staying hopeful
challenging astrology and the approaching North Node & Neptune conjunction
*I wrote this Friday, Aug 23
Everyone I know is having a difficult year. Hopes scuppered, waves of crushing grief, overwhelm … It should come as no surprise that astrology is contributing to our reality and shaping our experiences. I wish I had good news for you but unfortunately the astrology for Autumn & Winter is even more challenging.
Five planets retrograde at this time. Mercury thankfully stations direct next week on the 28th (Aug).
Best (I hear myself say to myself and to others) to sit outside on the balcony or deck or doorstep and look up at the clouds and sky and the flowers and trees. Best to look at what is here with you, red and green and filled with bird-song.
Today I woke up to pink clouds and golden light hitting the tips of the Douglas Fir and Red Cedar. What an awful and beautiful year it has been thus far. I step inside for my first cup of tea and when I return to the doorstep, it is raining. Soft rain. I step out and welcome the raindrops on my head and shoulders.
The pink clouds are gone. The sky is slate gray.
During meditation I burn sticks of rose incense as an offering to Venus, then open a book of poems by Robert Bringhurst and find myself reading and re-reading the lines:
The first maneuver to master in tuning
the lute is to want without wanting:
To wish without wishing, to fish:
And to hunt without wishing and hunting
To burst through the door asking
For everything yes, and for nothing…
Lute Poem, The Ridge by Robert Bringhurst
How to tune in without grasping for something more?
Follow your breath
Feel the rise and fall of the thorax, the expanding belly…
Breathe in daisies, sunlight and sage-green. Breathe out chickenshit and werewolves.
Or better yet, practice Tonglen.
Breathe in the chickenshit werewolves and breathe out sunlight and daisies.
What to attune to?
Attune: make yourself receptive or aware.
Attune to the North Node - Neptune conjunction. The Moon’s North Node is in Aries and Neptune is in Pisces. This conjunction will be exact in Pisces in February 2025. In the cosmic cauldron Aries’ ego fire blends with Pisces’ watery expansiveness and uncommon sensitivity…our ego is breaking out, expanding, becoming all-embracing.
We are attuning to our environment. Our senses are heightened.
Messages come to us from other realities, from beyond veils.
Our dreams are populated by mysterious figures. And there is water everywhere.
Ocean. Lake. River. Pond.
The “higher octave” of Venus, Neptune is Divine Love. Holy Mystery. They are responsible for showing you what is possible for you. This is Divine Feminine energy.
Clients and friends speak of altered states, mystical unions…strange physical symptoms, headaches, increased sensitivity to smells and sounds, all signs you are raising your vibration.
The North Node points to your future. It brings opportunities. You can start now to look at your Pisces house in your birth chart to see what will open up for you and how it links to a dream, a cherished vision of your future. (NN conjunct Neptune Feb 2025).
Thank you for being here. ❤️
Read about the Moon here.
Read about the Lunar nodes here.